every thursday
unsettling reading-group
Time: from 17:00 to 19:00
For more information or to join the unsettling reading group mailing list, please email: unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl
FACEBOOK EVENT
From the start of the second semester, the unsettling reading group will meet every week to work more intensively through a collectively assembled constellation of questions, topics and texts. The idea of "reading" here is approached very broadly and the formats for the group's meetings can include walks, talks, screenings, cooking and more. Group members are encouraged to propose ideas and to lead sessions, while guest moderators will also visit occasionally to introduce other voices and perspectives.
the second thursday of the month at lunch time
unsettling hangry hour
Time: from 13:00 to 14:00
FACEBOOK EVENT
This is the space and time to vent! Created in response to important conversations with students and staff, the unsettling hangry hour invites you to bring your lunch and share concerns around issues of inclusivity or access in need of addressing. Hangry hours are conducted in a spirit of confidentiality and critical optimism in the sense that what is shared is kept anonymous unless otherwise agreed, and active steps are identified in response to what is shared.
The unsettling hangry hour will take place at lunch time on the second Thursday of every month at the unsettling station in the Rietveld Library. And if you have any further questions, or would like to share a concern or experience in a less in-person way, please email: unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl
The unsettling hangry hour will take place at lunch time on the second Thursday of every month at the unsettling station in the Rietveld Library. And if you have any further questions, or would like to share a concern or experience in a less in-person way, please email: unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl
let’s set a date!
unsettling drop-in
To make a date with the unsettling team, please email: unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl
The unsettling team is excited to continue visiting each department of Rietveld and Sandberg to share more about the unsettling program and to hear from students and staff about their experiences, ideas, frustrations and desires for the future of their departments. Interesting questions to address could be:
- Who are “we” as a department?
- How can we create a safe space to work and think together?
- What perspectives, content and input are missing from our learning context?
- How can we support each other better in collaborative projects and collective processes?
- Who are “we” as a department?
- How can we create a safe space to work and think together?
- What perspectives, content and input are missing from our learning context?
- How can we support each other better in collaborative projects and collective processes?
21.04.2022
A Choir of Tongues
by Sara Santana &
Maria Paris
During two sessions, we will focus on translation, both as a traditional tool of power and inequality and as a potential space for sharing, transformation and resistance. The workshop proposes a collective translation of an excerpt from the book Lectura Fácil (Cristina Morales, 2018), imagining and deciding on our own tools and methods. This activity will be the excuse to think on our mother and acquired tongues, opening debate through readings both from academic and non academic sources, plus any other content proposed and shared during the sessions. These materials will ease us into topics such as hybridity, polyphony and silence, how we leave and erase traces when we speak. The results of the workshop will contribute to the ongoing project escribas modernas.
Sara Santana López, alumnae from Dirty Art and Maria Paris, alumnae from Approaching Language. Sara is an artist based in Amsterdam working with collaborative libraries and experimental publishing. Conversation and encounter determine her process, establishing a direct space of negotiation swinging between the intimate and the collective.
Often through installations and writing Maria Paris’ work raises questions on how poetics can be a radical political tool. Concepts of absence and removal are entangled in various forms, reflecting on the emotional and political nature of places and language.
Sara Santana López, alumnae from Dirty Art and Maria Paris, alumnae from Approaching Language. Sara is an artist based in Amsterdam working with collaborative libraries and experimental publishing. Conversation and encounter determine her process, establishing a direct space of negotiation swinging between the intimate and the collective.
Often through installations and writing Maria Paris’ work raises questions on how poetics can be a radical political tool. Concepts of absence and removal are entangled in various forms, reflecting on the emotional and political nature of places and language.
Next Session: 13.04.2022
Radical Intersectionality
by Afiah Vijlbrief &
Ella Smith Jr.
Click here to sign up!
Upcoming:
Session 4:
13.04.2022 19:00 — 21:00
BC 4th Floor Theory Room 1
Session 5:
20.04.2022 19:00 — 21:00
BC 6th Floor Room 616
Session 6:
27.04.2022 19:00 — 21:00
BC 6th Floor Room 616
A series of 6 individual workshops, 6 weeks in a row.
In each workshop we combine and work out theories of radical ( queer, racial, political) thinking with practical, creative working methods. Step by step, we will collectively decipher what intersectionality means (on different -identity- levels) and disrupt problematic social constructions that are built around power systems of discriminatory and racist behavior and thinking.
The program aims to decolonize both the academy and the mind, individually and collectively and targets students of the Rietveld and Sandberg. For this series this means that we depart from a radical intersectional perspective. At the end of the series students will be equipped with knowledge on intersectionality and are able to reflect on (and/or reinforce) their own social position herein.
Afiah Vijlbrief, researcher at Rutgers Knowledge institution on sexual health. Former researcher at anti-discrimination agency Radar, IDEM Rotterdam en Art1, and prior at Movisie en KIS on intersectionality. Trainer and moderator for Lilith agency.
Ella Smith Jr, board member at Colored Collective. Treasurer, trainer and organizer.
In each workshop we combine and work out theories of radical ( queer, racial, political) thinking with practical, creative working methods. Step by step, we will collectively decipher what intersectionality means (on different -identity- levels) and disrupt problematic social constructions that are built around power systems of discriminatory and racist behavior and thinking.
The program aims to decolonize both the academy and the mind, individually and collectively and targets students of the Rietveld and Sandberg. For this series this means that we depart from a radical intersectional perspective. At the end of the series students will be equipped with knowledge on intersectionality and are able to reflect on (and/or reinforce) their own social position herein.
Afiah Vijlbrief, researcher at Rutgers Knowledge institution on sexual health. Former researcher at anti-discrimination agency Radar, IDEM Rotterdam en Art1, and prior at Movisie en KIS on intersectionality. Trainer and moderator for Lilith agency.
Ella Smith Jr, board member at Colored Collective. Treasurer, trainer and organizer.
20 & 27.01.2022
Exploration of the personal, communal
and institutional realm of coloniality
by Danny Soekarnsingh
Click here to sign up!
Session 1:
20.01.2022 11:00 — 14:00
Theory Room 1
BC 4th Floor
Session 2:
27.01.2022 13:00 — 17:00
Theory Room 1
BC 4th Floor
Only for POC Students
The start will be an introduction to the frameworks of decolonization. The exploration of the personal, communal and institutional realm of coloniality.
The second session will be on dissecting colonial mechanisms and strategizing around in common lived experiences and institutional hurdles.
Writer Danny carries a bachelor's degree in a.o. Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore he has been invited to speak at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and at a global leadership summit at University of the Free State (UFS) South Africa on matters of social justice, equity, community building, strategy and business.
The second session will be on dissecting colonial mechanisms and strategizing around in common lived experiences and institutional hurdles.
Writer Danny carries a bachelor's degree in a.o. Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore he has been invited to speak at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and at a global leadership summit at University of the Free State (UFS) South Africa on matters of social justice, equity, community building, strategy and business.
In his time as a student he was one of the co-founders of the student organisation Family of Academic Minds (FAM), which is a student platform for first generation university students with a migration background. FAM serves as a physical safe space and a buddy program in which students will be paired with students from the next year onward and so creating a network that grows navigational capital and belonging. As of now he works at the Vrije University as a diversity officer and at Echo - Expertise center for diversity policy as a management consultant.
Currently Danny is writing two books. The first is called Racism - a full circle which is a book that highlights the value chain of racism analysed through de-colonial perspective. The second is called Roots and Flowers which is a book on spirituality and living.
Currently Danny is writing two books. The first is called Racism - a full circle which is a book that highlights the value chain of racism analysed through de-colonial perspective. The second is called Roots and Flowers which is a book on spirituality and living.
on 16.02.2021
Crushing Boundaries, Embracing Queerness
with Storm Vogel
Time: 17:00 to 19:00 (ONLINE)
Email unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl for more information and to join!
In this workshop, we will start at the beginning of how people have come to see sex and gender in Europe. To understand what queer actually means, we will start with a brief outline on the situated histories of queerness in Europe and how categories like heterosexual and transgender were created? We will look at how the gender binary came to be seen as the epitome of civilization that only rich, mentally sane white people could achieve; learning that to understand what queer means, one also needs to understand intersectionality as a framework to looking at the world.
We will then move into looking at what does having this knowledge mean for daily practice. How does the gender binary create language and the other way around? How can an institution and the people in it become more inclusive towards gender non- conforming and trans/ non- binary individuals? Since modern times, art has always been a place where a certain experimentation with gender and sex was possible- think Prince for instance- so what does that mean for an art school? We will discuss how deconstructing these ideas is an important part of creating boundary crushing art.
Storm Vogel (they/them) worked as a theatre director, teacher, cleaner, writer, performer, as team member of the political party BIJ1, as illustrator and as operator of a giant swing in the shape of a ship. During and after their studies at the theatre academy ArtEZ, they worked mainly as a maker of performances with children between the ages of 10 and 15. Their bachelor thesis explored the history of the term 'queer' and what it has come to mean over time, and analyses the position that queerness holds in art institutions today, looking specifically at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Recently Storm is exploring writing and filmmaking. They wrote short stories for 'Queering the City of Literature' in Utrecht and a science fiction story for the 'Other Futures Festival'. They love - and have always been fascinated by - science fiction's power to imagine and create different worlds and ways of being together. At the moment Storm is working on a video performance about the binary gaze that creates their body, as part of 'CINECLUB: Queer Diasporas', in Haarlem.
We will then move into looking at what does having this knowledge mean for daily practice. How does the gender binary create language and the other way around? How can an institution and the people in it become more inclusive towards gender non- conforming and trans/ non- binary individuals? Since modern times, art has always been a place where a certain experimentation with gender and sex was possible- think Prince for instance- so what does that mean for an art school? We will discuss how deconstructing these ideas is an important part of creating boundary crushing art.
Storm Vogel (they/them) worked as a theatre director, teacher, cleaner, writer, performer, as team member of the political party BIJ1, as illustrator and as operator of a giant swing in the shape of a ship. During and after their studies at the theatre academy ArtEZ, they worked mainly as a maker of performances with children between the ages of 10 and 15. Their bachelor thesis explored the history of the term 'queer' and what it has come to mean over time, and analyses the position that queerness holds in art institutions today, looking specifically at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Recently Storm is exploring writing and filmmaking. They wrote short stories for 'Queering the City of Literature' in Utrecht and a science fiction story for the 'Other Futures Festival'. They love - and have always been fascinated by - science fiction's power to imagine and create different worlds and ways of being together. At the moment Storm is working on a video performance about the binary gaze that creates their body, as part of 'CINECLUB: Queer Diasporas', in Haarlem.
on 11.02.2021
In Nature, I Open Up
with Afé Abeni and Henry Robinson
Time: 17:00 to 19:00 (ONLINE)
Email unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl for more information and to join!
In this session, we will be talking with Afe Abeni and Henry Robinson about their collaborative photography project. The photos in this series explores the use of the body as language and the freedom that nature allows. We will discuss the experience of queerness and coming into one’s body and how photography allows for one to be seen, and functions as a freeze frame of Afe’s transition journey deeper into himself.
Improvisational Movement Artist and Poet, Afé Abeni is a recent graduate from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. Having completed a BFA in Performance and Choreography, he has seen reflections of an indulgence in the once feared art form, Dance. His work encompasses representation of his journey home to himself, having been disconnected all his life. Abeni’s creative process is subjective to and heavily dependent on a cathartic approach with light shed on the extremes of his emotional experiences, responses and expression. Afé Abeni advocates for mental health by creating space for unfiltered expression and sharing of those experiences leading the medium, Art. He also seeks to take up space in that regard by being unapologetically his body’s greatest occupant, and leaps into greater new experiences with panic coexisting with the greatest bulk of excitement for love, healing and visibility. Afé Abeni, a non-conforming transman represents boldness in vulnerability and his work.
Henry is a London based visual artist born and bred in Jamaica. He has worked in film and photography in both Jamaica and the UK. Growing up in a predominantly black country where he learnt to play, love and laugh together with black faces in black places, he seeks to capture the black body in myriad forms. In addition to working with numerous commercial clients, such as Puma and Google, his work has been featured in Plantain magazine and exhibited at Kings College in London.
Improvisational Movement Artist and Poet, Afé Abeni is a recent graduate from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. Having completed a BFA in Performance and Choreography, he has seen reflections of an indulgence in the once feared art form, Dance. His work encompasses representation of his journey home to himself, having been disconnected all his life. Abeni’s creative process is subjective to and heavily dependent on a cathartic approach with light shed on the extremes of his emotional experiences, responses and expression. Afé Abeni advocates for mental health by creating space for unfiltered expression and sharing of those experiences leading the medium, Art. He also seeks to take up space in that regard by being unapologetically his body’s greatest occupant, and leaps into greater new experiences with panic coexisting with the greatest bulk of excitement for love, healing and visibility. Afé Abeni, a non-conforming transman represents boldness in vulnerability and his work.
Henry is a London based visual artist born and bred in Jamaica. He has worked in film and photography in both Jamaica and the UK. Growing up in a predominantly black country where he learnt to play, love and laugh together with black faces in black places, he seeks to capture the black body in myriad forms. In addition to working with numerous commercial clients, such as Puma and Google, his work has been featured in Plantain magazine and exhibited at Kings College in London.
unsettling Consultant
Judith Leysner
unsettling Coordinators
Nagaré Willemsen
Emirhan Akın
unsettling Graphic Design
Manon Bachelier
Judith Leysner
unsettling Coordinators
Nagaré Willemsen
Emirhan Akın
unsettling Graphic Design
Manon Bachelier
For any in-person questions,
suggestions, conversations,
please visit the unsettling station!
On Thursdays from 10.00AM to 17.00PM at the Rietveld Bibliotheek, FedLev building!
On Thursdays from 10.00AM to 17.00PM at the Rietveld Bibliotheek, FedLev building!
@. unsettling@rietveldacademie.nl
☎. + 31 20 588 2406
w. www.rietveldacademie.nl
w. www.sandberg.nl
unsettling visiting address:
Fred. Roeskestraat 96
NL – 1076 ED Amsterdam
☎. + 31 20 588 2406
w. www.rietveldacademie.nl
w. www.sandberg.nl
unsettling visiting address:
Fred. Roeskestraat 96
NL – 1076 ED Amsterdam