Our contemporary moment is saturated with the politics of polarisation and dichotomist thinking—with us- or -against us-, liberal or conservative, right or wrong, all-or-nothing. Binary thinking often happens when complex ideas and issues are overly simplified into twofold answers. When […]
The opening of That Those Beings Be Not Being will take place on Oct. 22, 2021. The opening will feature a performance by EMIRHAKIN, WHO'S GOING TO DIE IF I KILL MY SELF? Photography by Elodie Vreeburg.
23, 24, 30, 31, October & 6, 7, 13, 14 November Tracing Erased Memories is a site-specific multimedia guided walk, that aims to connect Amsterdam and Cairo through their harboured memories of resistance against state violence. Throughout the walk, participants experience […]
Four Sisters is a public garden and a community project initiated by Marija Šujica, Müge Yilmaz, and The Beach i.s.m Iris Dik. In a plot of land of 45m x 45m, rented from Gemeente Amsterdam in Nieuw West, an edible labyrinth […]
WHO’S GOING TO DIE IF I KILL MY SELF? is een video, performance en sculpturale installatie geïnspireerd door EMIRHAKIN’s ervaring in, en terugkijkend op, het Turkse leger. Met zijn eigen ervaring van de dienstplicht als uitgangspunt, in relatie tot zijn queer […]
For many years, artists have been exploring their identities by fictionalizing alternative characters. Through the alter ego, or the alternative self, one can speak about things that they aren’t often able to openly express. It becomes a way to deal […]
Join us on Saturday 13 November for a fruit-full workshop led by Veronika Babayan. The workshop involves watching, listening, remembering, and using our hands together. There will be undulating, non-linear storytelling and readings by Veronika as well as cutting, cooking […]
During the course of global conflicts, visual material generated by trained and untrained video makers could potentially be the only documentation of recorded events. In contemporary times of post-truth and widespread manipulation of media narratives the related gatekeepers, caretakers and […]
W139 is pleased to invite you to the finissage of That Those Beings Be Not Being. For this last day of the exhibition we have put together a day program with a zine launch by The Wild and an extended edition of EMIRHAKIN’s WHO IS […]
The Wild is a series of pop-up bookstores and art experiences inspired by the tradition of Black fugitivity, initiated by Tracian Meikle and Marly Pierre-Louis. In a zine-making workshop on November 14, 2021, facilitated by Marly Pierre-Louis and Kimberley Cosmilla, […]
Join MELT (Ren Loren Britton & Isabel Paehr)for a meditative gathering for a plurality of joyful Trans* and disabled futures. Together, we sen(s)d desires, wishes and intentions, and dream towards being in time differently. Online and at W139 participation is welcomed, we look […]
W139 hosts… marks the start of an energetic and dynamic month at W139. We invite you to experience this special programme from March 1 to April 8, which will include pop-up stores, workshops, meet-ups, but also gatherings, rehearsals, exhibitions, experiments, film screenings, […]
On Saturday 2 April W139 will host a fundraiser initiated by Ukrainian artists to support the Ukrainian art scene. How To Set Your Signs on Fire is a mixed event with performances, interviews, DJ’s. Above all, it is a call […]
How are we shaped by language? Are languages merely tools for expressing our thoughts, or do they actually shape them? In this solo exhibition, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji explores the complexities inherent in these questions. Encompassed in the animations, large scale […]
“I am both a stranger and a native to the same land, to the same mother tongue. This century told us too many times to stay alone, to cut all ties, never to look back, to go and conquer the […]
This event is part of 24h Centrum The myths, folklores, narratives, and stories that shape our societies, and permeate through multiple generations, are deeply entangled with language. Led by Sahand Sahebdivani, founder of Mezrab, and accompanied by Lara Ricote and Irina […]
As part of Sadik Kwaish Alfraji’s exhibition A Language Under My Skin, W139 will host a performance by The Names. Shaped by the ideas of critical music, listening and sounding practices, and the position of the post-musical, The Names combines […]
A book launch with love: a presentation, a night of conversation, performances and an abundance of presence, hosted by Simon(e) van Saarloos and W139, Amsterdam Cocktails & books available! Admission is free. W139 is wheelchair accessible but does not have […]
A critical supplement to your Dutch language and culture courses. Culture is leaky. As people have been moving around the world for as long as we can remember, we bring along traces and influences of other places. We borrow words […]
Through conversations about our personal experiences and using artistic resources, we will develop and share our own tools for translation. About this Event:Led by Sara Santana López and Maria Paris, in Choir of Tongues II, we get together to explore […]
The Wild is a series of pop-up bookstores and art experiences inspired by the tradition and history of black fugitives, maroons, refugees and exiles. The Wild is a meeting ground for Black togetherness that seeks to cultivate an intimate and […]
In Squeeze Crush Press Blush, curated by Afra Eisma and Marnix van Uum, twenty-one artists and filmmakers invite you to take a dive into their ever-changing minds. A crack in the gloss, a break, a rupture, a split, a breach, a slit, a smack, […]
“There are different ways to tell a story. I wanted to think about the way we bear ongoing witness to our own lives, and how this material tells bigger stories about the material, technological and socio-economic circumstances of the past […]
A new narrative for Ukraine: told by its children What is the influence of war on daily life in Ukraine? What is it like to grow up in a conflict zone? To live in constant fear? What dreams do young […]
Originally inspired by the urgencies of the pandemic and the anosmia that millions of people experienced, The Syntax of Smell looks at the entanglements between scent memory, nostalgia and toxicity. Our daily life has increasingly been scented by large conglomerates, and many […]
W139, along with two other venues, Zone2Source and Het HEM, is hosting the Sonic Acts Biennial exhibition one sun after another between Sept. 30 and Oct. 23, 2022. Departing from the long-running Sonic Acts research on pollution, the exhibition focuses […]
On Friday 30 September we celebrate the launch of Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 – warmly inviting you to the opening of our exhibition one sun after another at W139, Amsterdam. In conversation with the works exhibited, the evening includes interventions by researchers, artists […]
As a part of the Sonic Acts Biennial 2022 exhibition one sun after another, Félix Blume invites visitors to a listening session at W139, during which visitors will listen to Blume’s recordings and discuss his creative practice. Blume will discuss the making […]
Sonic Acts Biennial invites visitors to an evening conversation and book launch at W139, celebrating the two Sonic Acts commissioned works OBIT and Hard Drives from Space — and the publication of Oil News 1989-2020, a new artist book commissioned and released by Sonic Acts Press. […]
Led by artist Sam Lavigne, attendees will use Python in conjunction with basic command line tools to explore the possibilities of manipulating video with code. About the Workshop:Emerging in the early 2000s, the ‘Supercut’ is a genre of video editing made […]
Looking at loitering as both pollution and excess, Angeliki Diakrousi invites you to join us in hidden and regulated public spaces at the centre of Amsterdam. About the workshop:Are you a local, a teenager, an active neighbour, a digital citizen, a skater, […]
From 19 November until 18 December 2022, Gabriel Fontana’s Turning Towards Fluidity: A Tournament of the Unknown will take place at W139. Unfolding over a period of one month, and running parallel to the World Cup, A Tournament of the […]
Three games will be played during this event: Sonic Crosse, Multiform and Anonymous Allyship. In Anonymous Allyship, the notion of anonymity creates a situation where players don’t know who belongs to their team, and explores the feeling of belonging and the ways people perform in […]
On Nov. 18, the well-attended opening of Turning Towards Fluidity took place. Joana Cavaco accompanied the opening as MC through the evening, to the musical accompaniment of snufkin. Queer Choir Amsterdam opened the evening. After a special warm-up by Kexin […]
Researcher Nathanja van den Heuvel and Gabriel Fontana held a conversation on Nov. 29 about their joint research on sports and queer pedagogies. This was followed by a live screening of the World Cup soccer match Iran vs USA. The […]
Stop by W139 to watch the World Cup quarterfinals with mediation by artist and researcher Florian van Zandwijk. Surrounded by a TV studio set-up, Florian will do a pre- and post-match analysis linking the use of technology in and around […]
Ronnie CloseMore out of Curiosity 26:07 minutes, single-screen, 16:9, HD Digital Video, 2014. One of the key players in the new emergent political debate are Egypt’s fanatical football supporters, the Ultras. Although affiliated to different teams in the domestic league […]
Join us on January 27th from 19:00 for the opening of Dead Skin Cash, the upcoming exhibition by Salim Bayri and Ghita Skali at W139. Get money for your dead skin. Photography by Elodie Vreeburg.
Voluntarily or involuntarily we humans shed our dead skin. In this exhibition, Ghita Skali and Salim Bayri take this fact as their starting point to zoom in on the ambiguities within our relationship to dead skin—the tensions between its acceptance and […]
Six artists are invited to react to the prompt “Who can afford to not sell their own skin?” by curating a playlist of visual and audio materials for this weekly screening program. The schedule and invited artists are the following: […]
Taking place on March 8 at W139, A Reality Through Words and Images is a group screening programme of experimental documentaries, essay films, and poetry by Iranian artists. The screening programme directly or indirectly introduces ideas about permeability and entropy, political environment, the female body, displacement and […]
Join us next Tuesday 14th March at 20.00, as we conclude the public programme of Dead Skin Cash with Two Square Meters*: an open-discussion between dermatologist Dr. Marco van Coevorden, multi-disciplinary artist Ezzam Rahman and initiating artists Salim Bayri and […]
Substitutes engages with queer history and discourses around the body, gender, and sexuality. It features artists across several generations working in a variety of mediums to contextualise and converse with these discourses. The exhibition is about the absence of bodies, the abstraction […]
Substitutes engages with queer history and discourses around the body, gender, and sexuality. It features artists across several generations working in a variety of mediums to contextualise and converse with these discourses. The exhibition is about the absence of bodies, the […]
“For six years already I have been moving and becoming with HIV.” Keeping up with the Virus explores interdependency, connection seeking, risk-taking, and solidarity through the embodied metaphor of the virus performing in the artist’s body in the era of undetectability. […]
A dialogue between Louwrien Wijers, her friend and colleague Rory Pilgrim and exhibition initiator Philipp Gufler. First they will discuss Louwrien’s metal sculptures and invite the audience to listen to the sound of her brass music box titled ‘She and […]
4 June 2023 15:00-17:00Guided Tour of Substitutes 1Tomas Adolfs and Philipp Gufler Tomas Adolfs is part of W139's artistic team and an exhibition maker with an interest in artistic processes, experimental practices and DIY approaches. Philipp Gufler is the initiating artist […]
A film screening and book presentation with Angela Stiegler and Philipp Gufler in collaboration with the Goethe Institut Amsterdam. With their performative and collaborative works, Rabe perplexum was a subversive voice of queer subculture in the 1980s. In conversation with […]
Are you curious about how the internet has shaped the lives and creative expressions of migrant communities? During SALWA's Internet Cafe, we will dive into the topic of internet infrastructure in relation to migration. For the last three months, participants […]
The first SALWA Gathering in 2023: Exploring the Intersection of Community, Migration and the Internet. Starting at W139 or program, talks, food and drinks, and at 23:00 prepare to party hard in Garage Noord with Brussels based collective Yalla Nightlife. […]
8 July, SALWA is organizing a conveniently Extremely Late Brunch from 18:00 to 22:00. You can RSVP via the link in bio, and pay at the door!The brunch will include interventions and live interviews in collaboration with INC's The Void. […]
Journey inward in a four-hour trance experience. Swedish-Dutch Jefta van Dinther has sometimes been described as “the star of dark and mysterious techno dance”. His productions are hallucinatory and dynamic, sleekly designed and offer an outlook on humanity in a […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
W139 cordially invites you to the opening night of W139 hosts... on Friday 8 September—kicking off seven weeks of artistic experimentation! Starting at W139 from 19:00 with drinks among the exciting projects of week one and food by Common Ground, continuing with a free afterparty […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
Bidnan3eesh – بدنا نعيش (WE WANT TO LIVE), 2022 The neon artwork with the Arabic words بدنا نعيش (We want to live) was created by visual artist Susanne Khalil Yusef. The neon design is based on the handwritten words of Hamza, an […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
With our second edition of W139 hosts… we are excited to open up the W139 exhibition space for a dynamic seven-week long programme providing 55 makers and initiatives with the opportunity to present new projects or works-in-progress. During W139 hosts… a new constellation of […]
Don’t miss the spectacular closing event of W139 hosts… on Friday 27 October. During this evening, we will celebrate the 7 weeks of artistic experimentation, and the makers, participants and visitors that we welcomed in our space. Starting at W139 from 19:00, the closing event […]
People’s Forum, Farida Sedoc’s first solo exhibition, explores the conditions for art as livelihood and as a vehicle for change. Sedoc starts from her own precarious experience as an artist to address new forms of collectivity. Amplifying past and current voices […]
W139 invites you to the grand opening of People's Forum, an exhibition by Farida Sedoc, on Friday 17 November from 19:00 to 22:00 at W139. We hope to celebrate the kick-off of the exhibition with you! We will start with an opening speech by Urmy […]
Every Friday from 12:00 to 16:00, the weekly how-to workshop programme explores alternative modes of economic self-sufficiency within the arts field and beyond, in collaboration with various Amsterdam creators and experts. Visual identity by Erik de Hart. 24 November 2023How […]
First edition of two freely accessible weekender markets, full of unexpected treasures, self-published magazines, vinyl records, clothing, art works and craft products, and wholesome homemade food and drinks by local artists, designers, and makers. Vendors: Athenaeum NieuwscentrumHosselaerTree of SabaPeople of […]
Second edition of two freely accessible weekender markets, full of unexpected treasures, self-published magazines, vinyl records, clothing, art works and craft products, and wholesome homemade food and drinks by local artists, designers, and makers. The market also featured a fundraiser […]
As part of Farida Sedoc’s People’s Forum, MUBI will host a screening of the iconic Kung-fu flick, The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, from Hong Kong—famously sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan. Martial arts movies don’t get more iconic than this kung […]
Exploring the web of relations experienced through the body and senses, Sonic Acts Biennial 2024: The Spell of the Sensuous evokes our rootedness in the larger ecology of earth beings.
Encompassing the curatorial underpinnings of the 2024 Biennial, the exhibition illuminates its themes of sensory encounters with the more-than-human, touching upon animatic beliefs, alchemic elements, and emotional cartographies. With works by Harun Morrison, Jota Mombaça, touche—touche, Annika Kappner, Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, Brackish Collective, Pedro Matias, and Natasha Tontey. With a […]
Which song reminds you of the collapse of our planet? Whose fantasies are we living in? Environmental Justice Questions are questions about environmental justice for discussion and debate, compiled by artist Harun Morrison. A range of people – activists, writers, artworkers, architects, chefs, […]
(e)ncounter(ing) #3 – emotionally displaced is Pedro Matias’ performative reading of dépaysement, an emotional map of disorientating ‘stories’ that speculate upon systemic oppressive structures, nature, the (more than) human body, and regeneration. Through multiple flows of personal notes, poetics and fabulation, the […]
Join us for this special exhibition tour for curators and cultural professionals, which will expand on the overarching curatorial concept behind the biennial and take a deeper look into the exhibited works. During this tour we will visit both exhibition […]
Presented as an alternative guided tour of the W139 exhibition, Sarah van Lamsweerde, alongside Leroy de Böck, a visually impaired actor, invites visitors to engage with the artworks and space through sensory rituals. Provoking contemplation, they ask: Were these objects […]
Translating the Port of Amsterdam into a resonant body, Brackish Collective's performance engages the audience through auditory, olfactory, and gustatory interventions. The piece utilises elements from the installation of the same title – a dinner table created by the collective […]
The exhibition Outside the Soup, initiated by artists Afra Eisma and Hend Samir, emphasizes the potential of art to create new worldviews through radical imagination and artistic experimentation; placing care, solidarity, and trust at the forefront. Rather than building on a conceptual framework as […]
W139 warmly invites you to the opening of the exhibition Outside the Soup, initiated by artists Afra Eisma and Hend Samir, on Friday 26 April from 19:00 to 22:00 at W139. Outside the Soup brings together a large and diverse […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
FLUSH: a sudden rush of intense emotion is a flourishing relationship between Espacio Estamos Bien and W139, growing from the toilets at W139. We envision this relationship as the mutualistic workings of microbiota, a symbiotic process allowing for different interactions […]
W139 invites you to the Experimental Pizza Club, a collective dining experience during Amsterdam Art Week. Loosely, this is how it works: each pizza-lover brings three toppings to the table: something that tingles their taste buds, something they think will […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist's ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond? Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During […]
Meenakshi Thirukode invites you to Citizen’s Circle, a public gathering, workshop, and collective dialogue in which Meenakshi invites participants to contemplate on ideas of citizenship and democracy. How does solidarity and allyship operate in times like these? What does it […]
During the first live activation of FLUSH, Espacio Estamos Bien invited Kiss my knoblauch to use the toilet as the stage for the first toilet-concert at W139. Expect rapid words over DIY beats and synth tunes with trumpet doodles; an […]
"The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars."— Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower July 20, 2024 marks the beginning of Octavia E. Butler’s trailblazing 1993 feminist science fiction book Parable of the Sower, from the […]
Initiated by EMIRHAKIN, Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men reflects on (self-)censorship as a highly tangible experience, ████ proposing ways for maneuvering through fear. ██████ ████ █ ███, ████. In this exhibition, the strategies of oppressive regimes and their bodily implications […]
Click the links for more information about the artworks and artist bios. 1 — If I go any further, I will burnEMIRHAKIN@emirhakin 2 — SillageEMIRHAKIN@emirhakin 3 — SPIKES / They are going to die anywayEMIRHAKIN@emirhakinJonas Lerch@jonas__lerch 4 — Maryam's RepriseMohammed […]
You are invited for the opening night of Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men, a group exhibition initiated by EMIRHAKIN. During the night, there will be a performance by Andreas Tegnander & Ossip Blits, and Ottoman Hibiscus-Sherbets cocktails will be served. […]
Do you want to experience the cultural gems of De Wallen in a day? On Saturday 7 September cultural institutions in the historic city centre will open their doors for free to everyone in Amsterdam. From 11:00 till 16:00 hrs, […]
Initiating artist EMIRHAKIN is joined by Ghaith Kween Qoutainy for a conversation about the artworks and underlying themes of Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men. “…I am reading this again, and I have to think about why I went there with […]
Love, Deutschmarks and Death is a documentary by director Cem Kaya about the independent, and as of yet, unknown music of emigrated Turkish guest workers and their grandchildren in Germany. The German Federal Republic’s 1961 recruitment agreement with Turkey not […]
It is almost one year since the ongoing genocide in Palestine; it has been 75 years since it all started. In spite of it all, we want to gather; in spite of it all, we want to be together; in […]
Get ready for a special double bill performance night of theatrical storytelling with Sipan Sezgin Tekin and Basak Layic at W139, in collaboration with TuzBiber. Theatre maker and actor Sipan Sezgin Tekin will take us through an immersive theatrical experience […]
Join us in commemorating and celebrating the work of Rob Schröder, visionary documentary filmmaker and graphic designer, co-initiator of the activist design collective Wild Plakken, co-founder the Sandberg Instituut, and tutor at Sandberg Design, Shadow Channel and Resolution. Rob supported […]
EMIRHAKIN and ghenwa noire collaborate on a new performance piece in which they are dissecting the sounds of fear, loss and resistance. By activating their artworks installed in the space, the artists will sonically engage with the silence surrounding the […]
Museumnacht at W139 features a moderated talk and screenings where EMIRHAKIN invites artist Elif Satanaya Özbay to explore the evolution of Turkish horror cinema. Deeply engaged with the horror genre both in her artistic practice and as a personal obsession, […]
The year 2024 marks the beginning of Octavia E. Butler’s trailblazing 1993 science fiction book Parable of the Sower, from the Earthseed trilogy. In light of this important moment in time, artists Müge Yılmaz and Anna Hoetjes have initiated Taking […]
Join us for the opening of Taking Root Among the Stars! With colour-morphing cocktails, a feminist sci-fi book selection by San Serriffe, and a special opening ritual by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. Through her sonic and performative work, Ibelisse will bring […]
Through the electromagnetic waves of the phone, Taylor tells me that they had heard (or read?) Karen Rose say: "The body is your spiritual antenna." It’s been a while since I’ve thought about antennas. I google them and find: “How […]
Come to Bread Buffet at FLUSH #4, eat some cucumber sarnies, and read with us as we think through and around the site of work, precarity and enjoyment. Within affective labour economies and the history of service and hospitality, we […]
Plants often live quite unnoticed around us, especially in the winter months. How can we open up more to plants? In this winter foraging workshop, cook and nature guide Rens Spanjaard will take us into the lives of plants through […]
The winter solstice marks the longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere. This moment, when the sun seems to stand still for a moment, has marked an important transition in our planet's cycle since the earliest times. On […]
Since March 2024, Buro Stedelijk has hosted the monthly speculative fiction reading group Goddess Change, initiated by artists Anna Hoetjes and Müge Yılmaz, who are also the initiators of Taking Root Among the Stars. As an extension of the exhibition […]
How can we collectively reclaim space to slow down and imagine new just worlds together? Join us every Friday afternoon in January, when artists Müge Yilmaz and Sondi will activate the exhibition space through their works. Müge will host open […]
Artist Brittany Nelson has spent several years researching an archive of letters written between science-fiction writer James Tiptree Jr., who was really a woman named Alice Sheldon, and author Ursula K. Le Guin. Sheldon used a male pen name to […]
if you’re on time, you’re late is a three-part workshop series by Taylor Le Melle for writers of speculative fiction, science fantasy, and magical realism. During this series of three workshops we will experiment with timed automatic writing in response […]
The stars tell us stories, and with them, we can traverse time and space. Through them, we understand that the depth of the universe is infinite. Throughout human history, they have helped us explore the world, narrate mythologies, understand the […]
The Dutch call it "het privaat", the English "privy". The toilet in particular (the bathroom has a slightly broader meaning) is a space where you are mostly on your own, in full privacy. But not with a smartphone. The internet […]
“El Sufra” means the dining table in Arabic, a space where we share familiarity and comfort through flavours, smells, conversations, and the wholesome energy of gathering. To celebrate the culmination of Taking Root Among the Stars, W139 will be hosting […]
We are very excited to present Para-siting, a new programme that runs parallel to our exhibition programme. Para-siting is our response to the tremendous urgency we saw during W139 hosts… to create space for experimentation, try-outs, and work in progress. […]
With 2025 marking the 20th anniversary of the collective, Rainbow Soulclub is returning to W139, where they first exhibited in 2007, to celebrate and situate this moment in time. This exhibition brings together works that have been created over years of collaboration, […]
With 2025 marking the 20th anniversary of the collective, Rainbow Soulclub is returning to W139, where they first exhibited in 2007, to celebrate and situate this moment in time. This exhibition brings together works that have been created over years of collaboration, […]
PRODUCE, HAVE FUN, IMPROVE AND SMILE! by Sergi Casero Like hamsters on a wheel, we run in a race that has no finish line - because every now and then another goal appears on the horizon. This performance is for […]
Join us on Saturday, March 22, for an informal afternoon with the Rainbow Soulclub, where you can meet members and take part in a variety of activities. Enjoy live painting at the drawing table with Ebby, Abdi, and David, explore […]
As part of Saja Amro and Wassila Abboud’s on-going research program Remove the Dot, they’ll be screening excerpts from a recent interview with newly released political prisoner Wa’el Jaghoub with a short discussion following the screening. Wael Naim Ahmed Al-Jaghoub […]
Is looking back an act of necessity or just nostalgia in disguise? In a time oversaturated with images, references, and remakes, the impulse to return—to retrieve and to reframe—feels inevitable. But who’s hoping to find what? So what happens when […]
Join us on Saturday, April 12, to meet Rainbow Soulclub members during an informal afternoon featuring various activities, including live painting at the drawing table with Ebby, Abdi, and David, spiritual education in the tent with Mimosa, an informal group […]
A wasi in JawJaw (2008) is a short documentary film recorded during a trip to the interior of Suriname. Rainbow Soulclub members Ebby Addo and Roy Telgt (a.k.a. Totty) are given a ritual washing and treatment against addiction by Mr. […]
Join us for a drink to celebrate the end of the exhibition together with the Rainbow Soulclub members in an informal gathering followed by a sonic activation by The Social Music Club from 20:00 hrs onwards. The Social Music Club is a […]
We welcome Espacio Estamos Bien as our new Para-siting residents. They will be working on their project We do this not because it's easy, but because we thought it was going to be easy: Mission, Vision, Fiction, a space for autobiographical archiving, […]
13:00 hrs at W139 or 14:00 hrs at the 4Siblings field. Polyculture, in opposition to monoculture, is a system of growing plants that are beneficial to each other and create a regenerative effect on the soil. We think of polyculture […]
This spring, the Sunflower Soup collective brings PPP to life—a Political Party for Potatoes and other beings. PPP transforms W139 into a site of collective practice: an open workspace where you are welcome to make and share! Compared to conventional […]
Join us on Friday 23 May from 19:00 for the opening of W139's new exhibition: PPP!This spring, the Sunflower Soup collective brings PPP to life—a Political Party for Potatoes and other beings. PPP transforms W139 into a site of collective practice: an open workspace […]
Make Playful P(r)otato Propaganda with Sunflower Soup! During this workshop, participants will engage in experimental ways of imagining politics, while creating new PPP slogans, pamphlets and monumental banners together. Using PPP’s very own Pulp-font stamps, and an amazing collection of […]
As part of their residency, Espacio Estamos Bien will be celebrating their three year birthday party at W139. Espacio Estamos Bien started as two, in 2022 and now they are many. Acquaintances, friends, confused, visitors, fans, etc. During their years […]
On 29 May, PotatoPress opens the doors of its editorial room to all curious, wandering, and ambitious potato journalists to contribute to the PPPotato newspaper! Come peel a potato to reveal its hidden layers, dig deep in the earth for […]
Do all potatoes have the same interests or needs? What would potatoes say in a debate? Are all potatoes created equal and privy to the same rights? This workshop explores the existence, language, and connected system of potatoes through playful […]
Make Playful P(r)otato Propaganda with Sunflower Soup! During this workshop, participants will engage in experimental ways of imagining politics, while creating new PPP slogans, pamphlets and monumental banners together. Using PPP’s very own Pulp-font stamps, and an amazing collection of […]
Join Kasih Graphic for a Public Printmaking Workshop and explore experimental ways to produce and distribute printed matter. For this occasion, Kasih Graphic will bring their Print Bike—a mobile, modular printmaking studio equipped for silkscreen, relief, and intaglio printing. The […]
Make Playful P(r)otato Propaganda with Sunflower Soup! During this workshop, participants will engage in experimental ways of imagining politics, while creating new PPP slogans, pamphlets and monumental banners together. Using PPP’s very own Pulp-font stamps, and an amazing collection of […]
Eli Wewentxu has arrived to the swamp, from the distances of Wallmapu where he currently lives and works with the land, sowing and caring for animals. Wewentxu will close FLUSH's cycle in the W139 toilet in the best way possible: […]
How can artists and designers make their own practice more sustainable for themselves? The current political and ecological climate requires urgent action. We need to move fast, before we run out of resources. But how do we navigate this landscape […]
The 100-year celebration of Absent Academy is dedicated to the memory of those who have vanished, ceased to be visible, receded from view, faded, melted, withdrawn, departed, dissipated, dispelled, dematerialised, evaporated. Those who have been forced to disappear. Those with […]
This workshop explores how perception and touch shape the deep and layered relationship between bodies potato and soil. We’ll use the sensitive body as our main way to feel, mulch, peel, press, and (un)do. Joining in an act of collective […]
Join Kasih Graphic for a second Public Propaganda Printmaking Workshop and explore experimental ways to produce and distribute printed matter and propaganda. The workshop is centered around the Poster Signage—a sculptural sign made from a sheet of carved linoleum flooring, […]
The potato is usually seen as a trivial and ubiquitous source of food; it's just there. We don't think too much of it, which is surprising given that there are more than 4500 varieties of potatoes known worldwide and that […]
The workshop-filled day shows how the Doe-Het-Zelf Werkplaats collectively designed and built a party office for the PPP by making armor to protect yourself, floating ink printing, book-binding, and writing mythical stories. Our impulse in taking on this project was […]
In this workshop, we will dive into the history of feminist printing and protest poster-making. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own poster for change. Together, we will explore examples of feminist protest print and posters, read excerpts, […]
On the weekend of 19 and 20 July, Absent Academy celebrates their 100-year anniversary, dedicated to the memory of those who have been forcibly disappeared. Sîpan Sezgin Tekin and Agat Sharma are opening their work space during an open rehearsal, asking […]
In this workshop series we will collectively learn about polyculture and the life cycle of plants—from seed to sowing, to growth, and harvest. In May, we collectively planted a variety of PPPotato-species during a Potato Growing Workshop. On the 25th […]
On the 27th of July, the PPP will leave the spaces of W139. After two months and more then 20 workshops, this day will be turned into a small harvest festival. You are very welcome to join! Together with all […]
W139 opens its mouth and swallows you whole in Temper Tantrum Bonehouse (Chilling Incisions Calling Things That Have No Name), an exhibition initiated by Mette Sterre. Featuring works by Lolly Adams, Özgür Atlagan, Monster Chetwynd, Diane Mahín, Aimée Philips & […]
Join us for the opening of Temper Tantrum Bonehouse: Chilling Incisions Calling Things That Have No Name! During the opening, Miss HerNia’s will bring to life her visceral performance Tasty—a volatile piece of grotesque excess full of sweat, slime, waste. […]
Against the forces of capital and the housing crisis, squatting is one of our best remaining tactics of resistance. It is also an inherently creative act, transforming buildings, public space, and potentially the whole city. Spooktember opens with the launch […]
From 13 September, we welcome our new Para-siting residents Spookstad, who are organizing Spooktember—four weekends that explore the art and politics of radical publishing: art, books, workshops, performances, film screenings and more! “To create is to resist”, the more so when […]
We invite you to a scary storytelling night, presented in collaboration with Mezrab, and hosted by Sahand Sahebdivani. Come listen as a group of storytellers bring the Temper Tantrum Bonehouse to life—sending shivers down your spine and perhaps even awakening […]
The student encampments of 2024 marked a first global wave of mass mobilizations in support of Palestine and against Western complicity. On the basis of the Spookstad-published book about the student uprising in Amsterdam, we explore how art, writing and […]
“To create is to resist”, the more so when we do it together. On the last day of Spooktember, come in to make your own buttons or screenprint your clothes, while we’re joined by other autonomous and anarchist book and […]
Monster Mash is a three-day workshop series where Mette Sterre, Lady Bag, and Ainhoa Hernández Escudero join forces to create a tour de force full of fun. Together, they invite you to explore your inner monster and give place and […]
Desert Without Sand: Sequential Practices is a space for contemplation and investigation into the desert as both a physical landscape, an abstract concept, and a site for speculation. Through a cluster of activities, including performative reading, public events, and mapping and […]
In this roundtable conversation with Dr. Bert Derkx and Mette Sterre, you are invited to reflect on and dissect the Temper Tantrum Bonehouse experience. Together with the audience, we’ll explore what it means to return to the body and step […]
Desert Without Sand: Sequential Practices is a space for contemplation and investigation into the desert as both a physical landscape, an abstract concept, and a site for speculation. Through a cluster of activities, including performative reading, public events, and mapping and […]
Desert Without Sand: Sequential Practices is a space for contemplation and investigation into the desert as both a physical landscape, an abstract concept, and a site for speculation. Through a cluster of activities, including performative reading, public events, and mapping and […]
A Nightmare on Warmoes Street is a triple bill performance night with artists Mette Sterre, Diane Mahín and G at W139. Presented inside the immersive group exhibition Temper Tantrum Bonehouse, these three solo performances explore the beyond-human body and its […]
Step into a night of gruesome extravagance at Temper Tantrum Bonehouse’s Monster Ball, where you’re invited to transform into your biggest fear. Hosted by Mette Sterre, Ainhoa Hernández Escudero, and Taka Taka, with drag performers from the House of Løstbois: […]
Desert Without Sand: Sequential Practices is a space for contemplation and investigation into the desert as both a physical landscape, an abstract concept, and a site for speculation. Through a cluster of activities, including performative reading, public events, and mapping and […]
DNK Amsterdam, the ever-adventurous concert series and artist collective for experimental music, sound based art, and performance marks 20 years of activity with concerts and a retrospective publication created during W139's Para-siting over the month of November. A new generation […]
The Social Music Club is an initiative by Aimée Theriot and Koen Nutters. In just a few words: it is a musical improvisation session without dogmas, where the emphasis lies on meeting, and getting to know each other, while also […]
Faced with the tedium of patients who, time and again, return to receive a treatment that remains perpetual; with the side effects endured by some people living with HIV in Latin America due to low-cost medication, the privileges and restrictions […]
Mette Sterre will host an exclusive guided tour through Temper Tantrum Bonehouse (Chilling Incisions Calling Things That Have No Name), the exhibition she initiated at W139. Temper Tantrum Bonehouse explores the limitless potential of the body—turning W139 into a possessed, […]
In the context of the Para-siting project DNK is DONE… DNK Amsterdam presents a concert night with two solo sets of cutting edge electronic music by two of the Netherland’s finest performer-composers.ProgrammeDanya Pilchen — Feedback systemsRubén Patiño — Repetitive synthetic […]
Join us for the finissage of Temper Tantrum Bonehouse, a ritual of goodbye with a performative guided tour through the exhibition by Mette Sterre. This is the very last opportunity to still physically visit the Bonehouse, one final time before it slips […]
In the context of the Para-siting project DNK is DONE… DNK Amsterdam presents a concert night with two solo sets of cutting edge electronic music by two of the Netherland’s finest performer-composers. ProgrammeAnne La Berge — Flute and electronicsGert-Jan Prins […]
phANTASMAL HAIRSALON is a multidisciplinary art exhibition and performance choreographed by Raoni Muzho Saleh in co-creation with Karin Iturralde Nurnberg. W139 will transform into a campy, draggy hair salon where members of the public—the Clients—undergo a fabulous (or fabulously wrong) […]
In the context of the DNK is DONE… residency DNK Amsterdam presents a concert night with two sets of cutting edge and quite classical experimental music by a quartet of young musicians based in The Hague and an ensemble of […]
DNK Amsterdam invites you to a participatory performance on Beursplein. The Social Music Club plays To Cast A Net… by Koen Nutters: a group piece for sine tones in the public space. To Cast A Net… is a piece that […]
Dead Darlings is thrilled to mark their 20th anniversary with a special exhibition and auction in collaboration with W139. A two-week exhibition, including over eighty artworks, happenings, a plethora of archival materials and an extended auction event. We can’t wait […]
Dead Darlings is thrilled to mark their 20th anniversary with a special exhibition and auction in collaboration with W139. You are invited to join us in celebrating this milestone with the grand opening of Dead Darlings XX — In It Together! […]
Dead Darlings is thrilled to mark their 20th anniversary with a special exhibition and auction in collaboration with W139. Come celebrate an auction event like no other! Two rounds of bidding, with food, drinks, performances, and plenty of surprises. Stay […]
