Event – Page 3

Slow Wanderings

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 hours for The Adventures of Umay Ixa Kayakızı—a feminist science fiction library. She has spent years collecting more than 250 books by female, trans, and non-binary writers (sometimes under male pseudonyms) written in a speculative framework about possible future worlds. During these hours you can consult with Müge for book recommendations tailored to your interests and borrow a book from the library in consultation with the artist or you can simply treat these hours as a read-in to come and read books in the space.

Parallel to the open library hours, Sondi will activate her expansive video game installation through a series of listening sessions and collective moments of rest. “How Can We Dream If We Don’t Sleep?”
A guided session of storytelling, collective daydreaming, deep listening, and napping facilitated by Sondi.

Our culture requires that people of colour present themselves as extraordinary performers, athletes, or entertainers to exist in the public realm. This culture of constant productivity robs us of our right to rest. This session is a refusal. We gather to reclaim rest as a right, idleness as power, and dreaming as liberation. Rest is not incidental—it is political. Its deprivation is not random—it is systemic.

Inspired by Audre Lorde’s declaration that self-care is an act of “political warfare,” and Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, we hold space for stillness. In stillness, we heal, rebuild, and dream. Together, we take a collective pause, nurturing both our individual and collective imaginations to resist the forces that deplete us. Come lie down. Drift away. Let your dreams breathe life into infinite futures.

Friday 10 January, 16:00-18:00 — open library hours

Friday 17 January, 16:00-18:00 — open library hours and storytelling and deep listening session by Sondi: How Can We Dream If We Don’t Sleep?
A contemplative session of audio-visual storytelling and collective rest. Through personal narratives and fictional encounters, this experience delves into the themes of Mbombo: Dream Echoes, inviting reflection on the transformative power of dreams to shape infinite futures.

Friday 24 January, 16:00-18:00 — open library hours and deep listening session by Sondi w/ DJ Faustin
How to become orientated when feeling lost? Rhythmic Visions centers the navigation of black identity through sound. Inspired by afro-futurism, its an artistic manifestation of diasporic travels through space and time. A reinterpretation of cultural visions and sounds, towards imagining spaces of belonging

Friday 31 January, 16:00-18:00 — open library hours and deep listening session by Sondi w/ artist S*an

Tickets: visitors can drop in and join with a regular ticket to the exhibition.

Sondi is a new media artist from Germany, born in Cameroon and based in the Netherlands. Her work is deeply rooted in her identity as a person of the diaspora and acts as a conduit to unravel the intricate and intimate layers of identity, belonging, ownership, and heritage. Her artistic process centres around the concept of worldbuilding, creating virtual environments where memory, ancestry, and imagination enter into being. In these virtual dreamscapes, she examines new modes of being, using the power of imagination as an instrument of liberation.

Müge Yılmaz examines in her work the paradoxes around the concept of protection with a focus on community, survival and belief (faith). Through performances, photographs, and installations she creates immersive environments inspired by feminist science-fiction. Following the concept of three ecologies for observing the mental (subjective), societal, and environmental developments in a parallel method, she uses these mediums as tools for envisioning potential futures.

Faustin is a Dutch/Antillean DJ and artist who uses sound to explore identity and emotion. Known for his genre-blending sets at top (queer) venues like SPIELRAUM, De School, Garage Noord and Club Raum, he draws from his heritage and community to craft immersive experiences. Beyond the booth, Faustin curates events and A/V performances, including cccriojo on Operator Radio, where he reimagines cultural narratives through sound.

FLUSH #4: Bread Buffet

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 can see a broader pattern of systemic inequality shaped by colonialism, capitalism, and neoliberal governance. These frameworks often perpetuate exploitation whilst cloaked under the guise of benevolence, setting up defined roles of “host” and “guest”.

Bread Buffet is an offering from artists Sophie Soobramanien and Shreya de Souza. It is an ongoing methodology which takes various models according to a theme. Through workshops, zines, reading groups and experimental performances, they collage and interweave theory, art, fiction, contemporary events and visual material. Trying to find ways to contextualize and present swathes of research and information that bypass the potential barriers of academia. We are motivated to co-create these shifting shapes with a public/audience, in dispersing and digesting various knowledges, connecting thought and form in the process. Included in the buffets is a source list of all the extracts, citation being a vital part of the process.

Please RSVP to breadbuffetservice@gmail.com if you would like to come due to limited space in the toilet.

Cucumber sandwiches will be vegan, let us know in your RSVP if you are gluten free.

FLUSH #4: La Toilette

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 to maintain and protect your antenna from the ravages of time and weather?”

The motif of “la toilette” is a recurring theme in art history, representing moments of personal care such as dressing, combing one’s hair, applying makeup, or washing. Its universality spans different eras and cultures, reflecting notions of privacy and community, everyday challenges, aesthetic concerns, and transcendent ideals. FlUSH 4 invites us, in the stench of the most ineluctable aspect of our human condition, to some intimate moments of pictorial corporeality with Cosima zu Knyphausen.

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.

Text by Taylor Le Melle
Production by Julia Nowicka and Clara Rojas
Text design by Josefina Contin
Poster by Cosima zu Knyphausen
With publications of Lesbianas Concentradas

I Wish I Had a Dark Sea

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 get published in the 1970s, and to freely write about her closeted sexuality and desires using alien encounters as metaphors. Tiptree, while in hiding, wrote flirtatious letters to Le Guin, with more than 500 pieces of correspondence exchanged between the two authors in the 1970s before Tiptree was outed as Alice Sheldon.

In this public talk, Brittany will be in conversation with Julie Phillips, who is currently working on a biography of Ursula K. Le Guin. The two will be in conversation about the correspondence between Le Guin and Tiptree. Brittany Nelson will be joining online. The talk will be moderated by Fiep van Bodegom.

The title of this event is derived from a letter written from Tiptree to Le Guin, which is also part of Brittany’s work in the exhibition, which simply states “I Wish I Had a Dark Sea,”—alluding to Tiptree’s ongoing depression and referencing an Emily Dickinson poem as well as Le Guin’s story The New Atlantis.

Tickets: €7,50
Student price: €5,00

Buy your ticket on the Eventbrite-page of the event.

Julie Phillips is an an American biographer and book critic and the author of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, which received several honours including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Hugo and Locus Awards, and the Washington State Book Award. Julie is currently working on a biography of Ursula K. Le Guin.

Brittany Nelson explores 19th-century photographic chemistry techniques and science fiction to address themes of loneliness, isolation, and distance within the queer community and its parallels with space exploration.

Fiep van Bodegom is a writer, critic and translator. She is the editor of Extra Extra Magazine and teaches at the Creative Writing department at ArtEZ, University of the Arts. She has published regularly about literature in, amongst others, De Gids, De Groene Amsterdammer, NRC, and De Nederlandse Boekengids. She wrote the foreword for the first Dutch translation of Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred (Verbonden, 2022).

Despite Scarcity

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 a number of observation exercises to make contact with plants and their environments—seeing, smelling, tasting, and experiencing the plants ourselves. Everyone will discover different qualities of plants in this process, making the collective walk a rich and instructive way to share knowledge. We’ll be discovering, tasting, and smelling the plants to engage with the hidden lives of plants around us, especially in urban environments and cities. Both edible and medicinal plants will be explored, in an effort to think together about how to sustain ourselves, and our communities, in the face of scarcity.

This walk is part of the community programme for Taking Root Among the Stars, where we want to make visible the possibilities of making connections with speculative literature beyond imagination and theory. By gathering to learn new skills and be in community with one another, we reinforce that the speculative is grounded in gaining tools for the future.

The walk will begin at the pond in Westerpark, near the big oak tree, where we will start our experience with a warm acorn drink together. Find the starting location here.

Capacity: 10 people maximum
Tickets: €17,50
Student price: €15,00

Buy your ticket on the Eventbrite-page of the event.

* You don’t need to bring anything with you for the workshop. Just be sure to check the weather beforehand and dress appropriately for the weather conditions and the two-hour walk through the park.

** We offer community tickets for visitors who do not have the financial means to visit W139’s exhibitions or context programming. If you want to join the foraging walk but do not have the means, please contact us at info@w139.nl.

Rens Spanjaard is a cook and a nature guide. Rens studies herbal medicine and was the initiator of the food forest in Almere and Amsterdam.

Love, Rob

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 and inspired many students bringing together the worlds of filmmaking and design. As former students of Rob we invite you to an informal evening of coming together, watching and discussing two of Rob’s films and remembering Rob, as the caring and supportive tutor he has been.

15.30 Doors open
15.45 Azawad, The Art of Creating a State, Gabrielle Provaas & Rob Schröder, 2015
17.00 Ouwe Hoeren / Meet the Fokkens, Gabrielle Provaas & Rob Schröder, 2011
18.00 Informal after talk with drinks
18.30 Closing

The event will be for free. Donations are welcome. All proceeds will go to Syrian Eyes عيون سورية who support Syrian and Palestinian communities with food, essential products and temporary housing in BEIRUT, TRIPOLI and BEKAA. You can donate here.

Rsvp: design@sandberg.nl

Organised by the Sandberg Instituut in collaboration with W139 and alumni Emirhan Akin, Anja Groten and Juliette Lizotte.

Azawad, The Art of Creating a State, Gabrielle Provaas & Rob Schröder, 2015

Azawad: The Art of Creating a State offers a unique insight into the everyday struggle of the Kel Tamasheq (Tuareg), Arab, Fula, and Songhai peoples that have joined the liberation movement. Together with artist Jonas Staal and researcher Younes Bouadi, the directors interviewed the movement’s provisional government, commanders, strategists, historians, and artists, who explain their endeavors in the “art of creating a state”—a state that, up until today, has not been recognized by any other state in the world.

Ouwe Hoeren / Meet the Fokkens, Gabrielle Provaas & Rob Schröder, 2011

“In the old days, the local copper would tap on the window if a girl was showing too much ankle, now the girls deal coke from their cubicles.” Louise and Martine Fokkens are identical twins. For over 40 years they were working as prostitutes. They freed themselves from the control of their pimps, ran their own brothel, and set up the first informal trade union for prostitutes. They are familiar faces in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, but soon they will bid their farewells.

Meet the Fokkens is a portrait of these remarkable women, as well as a history of the Red Light District over the past fifty years.

FLUSH #3: Regresar al Mundo

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 spite of it all, we invite you to be here with us.

For this occasion, FLUSH will be taken over by the Colombian artist AUSENCIA, who will present his project Regresar al mundo. In this project, he touches upon the question of displacement through the story of a group of birds forced to move. AUSENCIA will show both text and textile works. During the days of the show, we will sell prints of AUSENCIA made in collaboration with Not Shit Print, raising money for different initiatives that support people in Palestine.

Alejandro Moreno Marin (@ausencia.nada) has published books, made clothes, designed objects and painted streets. What interests him most is discovering the narrative possibilities of the image and the exploration of media and materials. Currently, he creates works from textile materials and uses techniques such as embroidery, weaving and patchwork. His work is nourished by his sensitive experience, by seeking the extraordinary in everyday life, by religious iconography, material culture and popular graphic production.

“¡Aves rebeldes! Hermanas, compañeras,
Cantamos por la huelga
Que sea ahora mismo o no será nunca más
Todas juntas, aves de ciudad
palomas, torcazas, pericos
A desplegar alas y cantos”

“Rebel birds! Sisters, comrades,
We sing for the strike
Let it be right now or it will never be again
All together, city birds
Pigeons, wood pigeons, parakeets
To spread wings and songs”

Culturele Wallen Route

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, you are welcome at the participating organisations for a tour, performance, exhibition, workshop, concert, or lecture. Join the Culturele Wallen Route and (re)discover the creative heart of the city!

On presentation of the programme booklet of the Cultural Wallen Route, entry to W139 is free of charge. The programme booklets are available at the starting point of the Cultural Wallen Route, Waag Futurelab, the entrance of the Oude Kerk, and other locations.

From Waag Futurelab as starting point, the route will lead you to the other partners of Culturele Wallen: Huis De Pinto, Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer Op Solder, Oude Kerk, Frascati, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, Museum Rembrandthuis, and W139, where you can visit the exhibition Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men.

About Culturele Wallen

The Culturele Wallen Route on Saturday 7 September marks the launch of Culturele Wallen, a new collective that unites the cultural gems of Amsterdam’s historic city heart. Through enhanced visibility, collaborative energy, and inventive partnerships, the neighbourhood regains its creative identity and artistic soul. Once again, locals are drawn to this vibrant and creative part of the city.

You can find more information on the website of Culturele Wallen.

Storytelling Evening

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 that will blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. Presented in the format of a language class, the performance YEK/E will provide reflections on political and existential realities by exploring themes such as multilingualism, identity politics, and the embodiment of language.

Basak Layic’s Divine Madness will invite viewers to reflect on the transformative and connecting nature of storytelling as a way of bridging cultural gaps. By infusing comedic situations into serious narratives, we will explore the complex yet universal human condition through the depths of madness and the divine feminine.

Sîpan Sezgin Tekin, born in Amed, Kurdistan in 1996 and now based in Turkey and The Netherlands, is a performer, theater maker, and actor. As an artist and nomad, Tekin’s exploration of meaning is expressed through a fusion of performance, choreography, sound, and documentary, drawing from an oral tradition of narrative and storytelling. His work provides dynamic reflections on political and existential realities, weaving together mythological and real stories to craft experimental narrative performances, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. Tekin examines the political dynamics of language as a power dynamic and delves into identity politics, exploring themes of multilingualism and the embodiment of language in performance for enhanced accessibility and narrative diversity. His artistic inquiry focuses on the embodied communicative and sensory potential of language, aiming to create immersive theatrical and performative experiences.

Başak Layic wears multiple hats as a theatermaker, storyteller, artistic director, and community builder. Born and raised in Istanbul, her endeavors continually captivate and unite audiences, highlighting the transformative influence of storytelling in bridging cultural gaps and fostering a profound understanding of humanity. After moving to the Netherlands in 2019, Başak became a household storyteller at Mezrab and later wrote her first play: The Millennial Immigrant, for the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, directed by Mara van Nes. This marked the beginning of a series of creative collaborations between the duo. Since then Basak has had the privilege of taking the stage in various Amsterdam venues as a storyteller. By infusing comedic moments into serious narratives, she strives to address the universal human condition and unite diverse audiences.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Tickets: € 7,50

Student tickets: € 5

Images by Elodie Vreeburg

FLUSH #2: Empezar por algo

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 alarm to shake us out of our paradigm and a lullaby to soothe us into a new one. Keep your eyes wet and your fists big. Slugs, cockroaches, kliko’s, fritessaus and toxic armpits brought to you by Fishra and B.Ruiz in a stew of gothic utopias and stinky critique.

FLUSH will also launch their amazing merch, made in collaboration with Miguel Cruz and Artes Oscuras, and available in the W139 shop. They will also sell their very special vermouth, made together with Merceria Clara.

FLUSH is a new relationship flourishing between EEB and W139. FLUSH is located in the bathroom space of W139. This space and its programme generates inter-local relationships, understanding Amsterdam as a base and a place where different interactions can be facilitated, to create links that allow us to shorten distances. Connections that are joyful and decentralized, looking beyond the Amsterdam art scene.

19:00 — Toilet doors open
20:30 — Start concert by Kiss my knoblauch
22:00 — The last flush