Practicing Freedom

Eight knots emerging from (Be)Longing, a two-day workshop held March 28–29 2022 and convened by Amal Alhaag and Selene Wendt, where artists, activists, writers, academics, curators, directors, and guardians of institutional collections presented their work engaging the possibilities and necessities for returning objects currently held in European and American museum collections. The respondents to each presentation were drawn from the same group.

The Goethe-Institut in Amsterdam hosted a conversation between Wayne Modest (Director of Content National Museum of World Culture) and Nanette Snoep (Director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum) with a poetic intervention by Quinsy Gario. It was the first public event that took place within the context of the Practicing Freedom project. The event was developed and hosted in collaboration with the Research Center for Material of Culture at the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen.

We were pleased to collaborate with the African Artists’ Foundation, Lagos to host a symposium that took place at AAF between 8-10 November 2022. Aspects of the programme were open to the public, including performances and lectures, as well as a workshop component conceived to democratize and connect the art community in Lagos in one dialogical space. 

Quinsy Gario is an activist in the movement against Zwarte Piet, as well as a performance artist. He was born in Curaçao and raised in St Maarten before moving to the Netherlands. Quinsy joined us for our event in London in March, where he read his poem.