Re: <nettime> International anti slavery BLM

Hi Molly, all,

Just to chime in briefly from NL. It’s great to see the Dutch national museum for mostly pre-modern visual arts take up this gauntlet and producing a show that extends the rather meagre presentation of NL’s colonial past (and present! – don’t forget, there are still “overseas territories” in Latin America…) in the regular collection display, where only one room and limited number of artefacts is devoted to that colonial past and slave trade.

Still, it feels as not enough and too late. Before I was cleared out of Amsterdam by the forces of gentrification (about two years ago), I was living in the ‘Indische Buurt” (named after the former colonies in SE Asia, roughly what is now called Indonesia), a highly multi-cultural, immigrant neighbourhood, which used to be a disaster zone (the district with the lowest average income in Amsterdam and the only one eligible at the time for EU structure funds). Then, as usual the arts people and ‘experimentals’ moved in (like us), followed by a wave of renovations and expats renting these renovated places at ridiculous prices (4 to 5 times the rent that was collected before). The rest was sold off on the free market, but a lot of housing remained social housing / controlled rent, and typically you find a large immigrant population there, as well as a large contingent of people of Surinam descent.

When in a nearby park the ’Slavery Monument’ (Oosterpark) was revealed the then queen showed up with dignitaries and few token ‘former slaves’ (by family origin), while the police barred off the local Surinam and other population of slavery descent from entering the park and attending the ceremony. The monument itself, meanwhile, was carefully hidden from view by dense bushes around it, so it would not disturb anyone entering the (English landscape style) park looking for pasture, or a quiet walk (with or without dog).

Emphatically, this was NOT a scandal in NL, no further media reports about it. Only much later was this shameful episode revealed when locals spoke out on local TV channels, after which this was mostly ignored in the wider mainstream. That was only a few years ago. So it is fair to say, there is a looooooooong way to go…

I mentioned before here, that the turnout was massive for #BLM following the ‘intra-institutional’ killing of George Floyd (sadly among many others) and the large scale protest in the US. So yes, I agree with you, that this might be a bridge between our continents, but we must acknowledge that this is only the very beginning.

There’s so much more to say about this, and yes David is right, Framer Framed has lead a wave of new discourse and practice that tries to address this within the cultural / arts community, and there’s other initiatives, already for many years. The breach here is that a mainstream institution has taken this on. It is an encouraging step, but only the first of many that are needed.

all my bests,

Eric

On 20 May 2021, at 04:51, Molly Hankwitz <mollyhankwitz@gmail.com> wrote:

hi
I am frequently cranky about US and Europe and have Europe envy but that might be nostalgic, but today I find this article below on this big show opening in the Netherlands about artifacts stolen from colonial people and the whole thing about giving them back...and I’m following this story with great interest. I had read about the Dutch govt giving back stuff they’d pillaged. Just as assists are becoming so invisible, right?

I teach in Art History and the post-colonial discourse has only just begun to heat up after last summer and the civil rights movement. Kathy High had sent me a document called Decentering Whiteness and I’ve shared it to my colleagues. Its’s focused upon design. But, wondering what other strategies are being used in your worlds to counteract Western imperialist history?

Maybe there are more bridges between our continents...all this scholarship about the slave trade links us undisputedly, and now to think that BLM would be influential Holland. I’m sorry if that is no longer the name. I have often been jealous that European countries are able to change their names.

Molly

https://apnews.com/article/europe-race-and-ethnicity-slavery-global-trade-health-bc419a8e4b3c5abed828378ced37fca8
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