Event – W139

100 Years of Absent Academy

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 the question: “How can a performative space provide a ground for disappeared knowledge to be present?”

They invite the audience to participate in a drawing exercise that explores how to speak about enforced disappearances under the looming threat of state violence and surveillance. They imagine a new country—one where it is possible to confront and process enforced disappearances. Maybe a new country for all those who have been made to disappear by the deep state.

Absent Academy is a semi-public pedagogic space, aiming to think about enforced disappearances, which is an extrajudicial practice employed by deep state actors across Central and South Asia.

Agat Sharma is an artist, educator and theater maker who focuses on long-term research into the history of cotton. Through theatrical experiments, he explores the pre-colonial legacy of cotton, colonial extractivism and the ongoing agricultural crisis in India. His work focuses on themes that explore the origin, evolution and erasing of the relationship between land and body. Agat uses a broad view of what a song and a story can be, and uses them as instruments to bring collective postcolonial imaginations to life. Agat works both in the Netherlands and in India.

Sîpan Sezgin Tekin, born in Amed/Kurdistan, is a multidisciplinary performer and theatre maker whose work explores political and historical narratives through the embodied use of language. Focusing on multilingualism, language physicality, and identity politics, he creates immersive performances that examine the role of mother tongue in shaping identity, performance, and the perception of borders and nationality. Sîpan based in Turkey and in The Netherlands.

Para-siting: Absent Academy

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Academy is dedicated to the memory of those who have vanished, ceased to be visible, receded from view, faded, melted, withdrawn, departed, dissipated, dispelled, dematerialised, evaporated.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 the power to shapeshift and become wind, water and snakes to pass through borders, barricades, checkpoints, fences, walls, watchtowers, frontiers and restricted zones. By force and deception, those in power have made them disappear, but their songs still resonate in the landscape. In this edition of Absent Academy, we will learn to sing these songs and draw out their faces from our dreams.

On 25 June, we will welcome our next Para-siting residents: Absent Academy. Sîpan Sezgin Tekin and Agat Sharma will create a shared semi-public pedagogic space, aiming to think about enforced disappearances, which is an extrajudicial practice employed by deep state actors across Central and South Asia. In both their cultures, it is possible to talk to those who have ceased to be amongst us through songs and drawings. The form that Absent Academy takes in this edition is that of an open research rehearsal process, towards making a performance to culminate the residency. During the residency, the visitors can join the rehearsal and research process.

FLUSH #7: PITXANTU

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: with his sounds and his music.

PITXANTU sound archives, as a work, is born from deep listening during walks through the pitxantu, or pitxa forest, located in the territory where Wewentxu lives and where his family has lived for several generations. Field recordings, soundscapes, synthesizer layers, and melodic lines with bowed string instruments and txompe compose these pieces, which seek an imaginary dialogue with the territory, the beings that inhabit it, and their forces, which in turn perceive and listen to us.

Entry to concert is free.

Eli Wewentxu is a Mapuche artist from PLC, Gulumapu – Wallmapu, now known as south-central Chile. He trained as a violinist from an early age. In sound, he works with improvisation and musical composition with the idea of redefining listening through a narrative close to the territory in resistance to which he belongs.

FLUSH: a sudden rush of intense emotion is a flourishing collaboration between Espacio Estamos Bien and W139, located in the toilets of W139. FLUSH operates as a flexible form of organizing and creating, enabling various types of collaboration. FLUSH aims to foster inter-local relationships, viewing Amsterdam as a hub for facilitating diverse interactions and building connections that bridge distances. Joyful, friendly and decentralized connections extend beyond the Amsterdam art scene.

EEB’s 3rd Birthday Party

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 of life they have approached many -sometimes with short notice- to invite new people as partners and accomplices of the spontaneous (and not so spontaneous) ‘nonsense that we come up with‘.

During these 3 years we have made 20 situations come true, 20!!!! How nice to go back, to remember, to archive and to understand each other. This text is written while we organize ourselves in a space that was granted to us for a month and a half, and that we have decided to take to look back, between doubts and clarifications. We have also decided to celebrate our anniversary

Although originally our birthday celebration was an ephemeris of the birthday of the king of Holland. This year we have decided to born again on May 25th, International Africa Day, World Soccer Day, Thyroid Day and the new birthday of Espacio Estamos Bien.

Espacio Estamos Bien, has been a refuge, a reality, a factor of exhaustion, a meeting place and, if sanity and assertiveness crosses us, maybe one day, rich.

We invite you to come and celebrate with us on the 25th of May from 17:00 until 22:00. We will have piñata, torta, snacks, drinks, performances, Karaoke and more!

This meeting is once again an effort to be together and work with comrades, and celebrate collectively

Participant artists that make this birthday a reality: Andoni Zamora, Annette Wolfsberger, Antonio Duarte, Ausencia Nada, Clara Rojas, Cosima zu Knyphausen, Dana Klassen, Desiree Schouteten, Elsa Casanova Sampé, Julia Nowicka, Klaas Baby Cow, Lina Bravo, Lorena Solis, Lucía del Valle, Lucie Sahner, Macarena Magaña, Mili Herrera, Nick Sheraan (derde graphic designer), Rizquita Naherta, Santiago Saizu (Santi Angel), Sergi Casero, Taylor Le Melle, Valentina Cadena.

Workshop on Feminist Printing and Poetry

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, and reflect on what’s happening in the world, and in political speech in the media. Through poetic alterations and letter-writing exercises, we will engage with how language and imagery can influence activism.

Periphery Center is a queer BIPOC collective of writers, curators and graphic designers based in Rotterdam and consisting of Leana Boven, Pelumi Adejumo, Yusser Al Obaidi, Jeanine van Berkel and Yessica Deira.

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.

P(r)otato Propaganda Production workshop #

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 fabrics, we will produce PPP propaganda that is poetic, colourful, and polyphonic. Let’s Peel the Power! And practise the politics of poetic potato promotion.

The workshop is open to all ages (grown up and baby potatoes) and no prior skills are required to take part. The banners produced in the first workshop will become part of the PPP and will be displayed in the space.

P(r)otato Propaganda Production workshop with Sunflower Soup

Sunday May 25, 15:00 – 18:00
Wednesday June 4, 14:00-17:00 (sold out/full)
Saturday June 14, 14:00 – 17:00

Sunflower Soup was born out of a shared activist engagement and a need to explore what art can mean beyond the confines of the individual. The collective is driven by a number of questions:can a shared way of working contribute to a less detached experience of art? How do people relate to each other and to the more-than-human world? How do we reconcile the importance of activism with a poetic visual language that allows for humour, paradox and ambiguity?

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.

P(r)otato Propaganda Production workshop #2

P(r)otato Propaganda Production workshop with Sunflower Soup

Sunday May 25, 15:00 – 18:00
Saturday June 14, 14:00 – 17:00

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.

Public Print Propaganda #2

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, attached to a signage pole. This movable relief print will be installed around the W139 area, transforming everyday signage into sites of visual communication. Participants will make their prints directly off of the linoleum sign post, echoing the act of pasting posters on public walls and tagging street signs.

Together, we will create and distribute images and messages that emerge from group discussions with Kasih Graphic in connection to the PPP. You’ll also have the chance to personalize your prints with additional drawings or color.

Participants are welcome to bring their own materials, anything wearable, or sized A4 to A3 is perfect.

Kasih Graphic is a collaborative printmaking practice founded by Angga Cipta (Jakarta) and Chad Cordeiro (Johannesburg) . It emerged from their shared interests and overlapping practices in printmaking, arts pedagogy, and archiving.

Angga Cipta (Indonesia) is a visual artist, printmaker and educator whose work is focused on socio-political histories, migration, urban planning, and the dynamics of city life in the global south. His multi-media approach includes print, drawing, installation, publication, and video.

Chad Cordeiro (South Africa) is an artist, printmaker and educator who works across the mediums of collage, print, sound, and installation. His current research is centred on the DIY production of printmaking tools and materials, as well as open-source approaches to the archiving and dissemination of print-based media, history, and technical processes.

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.

Public Print Propaganda #1

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 Print Bike supports informal workshops, education programs, protest poster production, artist editions, and collaborative projects. It’s inspired by the Medu Art Ensemble’s “silkscreen workshop in a suitcase” and the Starling coffee bikes of Indonesia.

Together, we will create and distribute images and messages that emerge from group discussions with Kasih Graphic in connection to the PPP, and have the chance to personalize your prints with additional drawings or color.

Participants are welcome to bring their own materials, anything wearable or sized A4 to A3 is perfect.

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.

Politics of Perceiving

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 care – we host a nurturing environment. Not for us, but for soil organic mattering. Today, it’s soil, that is our guest. The workshop unfolds in three parts: perceiving, relating, and storytelling.

We begin by attuning to the sensuous and responsive body through simple guided exercises rooted in the principles of Haptonomy—an approach that emphasizes touch and emotional connection.

From there, we extend our attention outward, working together with potatoes, and other living matter. We pay attention to texture, temperature, and weight. Each movement of peeling, rubbing and holding a gesture of presence and resistance. We’ll compost as a form of soft protest. Slowly we will start to map complex interactions.

We’ll end our work around the conversation pit where we bring together memories, recipes and frustrations. We tell stories and the stories ferment. They soak into the shared vessel of our labour. What we will collectively leave behind is not a product, but a process. A vessel of gestures as an offering. A living residue highlighting interdependence and need for refusal and ecological care.

This is not a workshop to make something, it’s a moment to undo, together.

Rosalie Bak is an artist and haptonomist that works at the intersection of affective research, embodiment, and spatial practices, with a strong focus on ecology, art, and somatic care.

Margherita Soldati is an artist whose work explores themes such as diagnosis, immunity, and the relationship between food and the senses, often in collaboration with scientists and communities.

Together, they explore how artistic, empirical, and embodied research can be combined to deepen the understanding and integration of knowledge about ecosystem health. They also investigate how this approach can help make research outcomes more accessible and relatable across different disciplines.

Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome.