unsettling presents

Black Presence

With ‘BLACK PRESENCE’
during the Dutch Slavery Memorial Year (1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024) unsettling is organizing a 3 month long weekly gatherings and conversations highlighting several black perspectives and perspectives of artists of color, showcasing art practices, workshops and going on walks visiting different organizations throughout Amsterdam amongst others Black Archives and Bijlmer Believers in Amsterdam and within the Netherlands and how this history still plays a role in the lives of many today.

Slavery Memorial Year 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024

For over 300 years, adults and children from various parts of Africa, were abducted and shipped across the Atlantic in inhuman conditions, by mostly Dutch slave traders, to the former Dutch colonies of Suriname and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten. The indigenous peoples of the numerous Dutch colonies were not spared either. In Asia, enslaved people were traded to areas under the administration of the United East India Company (VOC).

For generations, people were born into slavery. They were forced into slave labour for their entire lives, serving the Dutch plantation owners.On 1 July 1863, slavery was abolished by law in Suriname and the Caribbean islands, then colonies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Nevertheless, a large proportion of the enslaved population had to continue working on the plantations under state supervision for a further 10 years in order to mitigate the "loss caused by this measure" to the plantation owners. Accordingly, for many in the then kingdom, slavery did not actually end until 1 July 1873. 1 July 2023 will mark 150 years since that event.

From 1858 until long after 1873, contract labour also subjected people from Asia to hard labour in Suriname under Dutch colonial rule.

"Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered apologies during a speech on 19th of December 2022 for the actions of the Dutch state in the past. He extended these apologies posthumously to all those who were enslaved and suffered worldwide due to those actions, to their daughters and sons, and to all their descendants up to the present day. This happened at the National Archive in The Hague in the presence of representatives of organizations advocating for the recognition of the consequences of slavery. In Suriname and on the islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, members of the cabinet will engage in discussions with relevant organizations and authorities to explore what these apologies mean on the ground.

"We are doing this, and we are doing it now, as we stand on the threshold of an important commemorative year, to find the way forward together. We not only share the past but also the future. So today, "We are not writing a full stop, but a comma," HOW do we want to CONTINUE NOW?

MORE INFORMATION:The National Institute for the History of Slavery and Legacy (NiNsee):

https://ninsee.nl/Teacher's Day 2023: https://ninsee.nl/docentendag-2023/Black Archives: https://www.theblackarchives.nl/home.html https://dutchculture.nl/en/news/open-call-dutch-slavery-memorial-year-2023-2024 https://www.lakenhal.nl/nl/verhaal/strijden-ga-ik-anton-de-kom-en-de-surinaamse-studenten-unie https://kozwartepiet.nl/https://nederlandwordtbeter.nl/educatie/https://amsterdam.wereldmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/our-colonial-inheritance https://amsterdam.wereldmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/whats-story http://www.blackheritagetours.com/

9.2.2023

Make Friends Not Artby Fiep van Bodegom

To Tell You The Truth

Time: 17:00 — 20:00

Location: unsettling bar email to sign-up: unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl

Make Friends Not Art
by Fiep van Bodegom

Location: unsettling bar

email to sign-up:
unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl