Talks and Walks
My practice as artist and tour guide provided me with a unique way of seeing. Tour guiding, like art, involves a keen perception for details and the ability to tell a story that might challenge conventions or assert them. The intimate knowledge of a place that comes from guiding is a great inspiration for me as it allows, oftentimes the hegemonic narrative to be challenged by traces of the past.
Hidden Aspects
February - March 2020
Hidden Aspects of Amsterdam is a project I organized which included tours and discussions with members of The Black Archives institute and with Amsterdam-based writer Simone Zeefuik. This project grew from my interest in art as research and critical practice, expressed in group actions that are meant to instruct but also disrupt the public space. A group of students took part in a series of tours that engaged with Amsterdam’s colonialist history and presented a critical view of the city’s current reality.
Collected Fictions: Taking Back The Grey Zones initiative
November - 2019
In a class in the Rietveld Academy, co-taught with prof. Matias Kreutzer, I experimented with the combination of research and critical practice in art and integrated the dynamics of group actions.
In this class, students produced alternative maps for the Rijksmuseum, dealing with unseen aspects of it. Initially I led a tour of the museum space and its narratives, highlighting the way they support the national narrative and obscure traces of colonialism.
After the tour, maps were made by students, highlighting what they found to be prominent.
These maps were later placed in various public “Grey Zones” around the museum, areas designated for posting public announcements. By providing an alternative map as a public service we were questioning the agency of artists in public space.