Tag: Talk

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).

A conversation between EMIRHAKIN and Ghaith Kween Qoutainy

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 this comment. I think, now that I am looking at this with some novel eyes, I can see how it shares the same formula with your show; the ratios of the fear and fearlessness, the self and nonself, the said and implicit, the cultural and political, and the one and many. This controversy of showing something that is un-showable; censored, explaining while knowing none of the listeners will understand, but still trying to unveil that which you yourself don’t know lies under…this startles me. How can you really say something to others that you can’t, or don’t know how to, say to yourself!? Do you hum it in a prayer?!”

Comment by Ghaith Kween Qoutainy.

EMIRHAKIN poses urgent yet open questions about the influence of contemporary politics on our human psyche. Navigating through the ever-changing signs and symbols of our times, the artist is mainly curious about the things that are being put in places that they are not supposed to be, serving as reminders that meaning often emerges through this arbitrariness. His practice encompasses the mediums of performance, text, video, and installation, which are translated into visual (and non-visual) indexes. By challenging the bodily experience of the artist and the audience, his long-durational pieces dismantle the predefined ways of observing and performing, consider the space beyond physicality as a negotiation, and resist the constructed idea of time through the modes of queer temporalities.

Ghaith Kween Qoutainy is an artist, an organizer, and the founder and director of ISSUE Magazine, born in Damascus, Syria and based in Amsterdam. Their current work is an endeavor that focuses on an investigation of the dynamics that govern orientations in space, the legislation that facilitates it, and the socio-political atmosphere coloring it. Their practice is research-driven, prioritizing content and infliction of change over medium and aesthetic judgment, mostly working in collaboration or collectivity, delving into topics such as (dis)Identity, critical socio-cultural inclusion, and political activation through art and cultural means. Their curatorial/cultural-programming work is an extension of their artistic practice, and is mainly focused on community building, collectivity, social justice, visibility, and intersectionality.

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

Museumnacht — Horror: Made in Turkey

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, Özbay joins EMIRHAKIN in a discussion that connects to the broader themes of the exhibition Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men and beyond.

Focusing on the transformation of the Turkish horror genre over the past two decades—from attempts to emulate Hollywood to a distinct emphasis on Quranic symbolism—the conversation will examine how these changes reflect the political and societal shifts within Turkey. The artists will trace these transformations through their personal memories, connecting them to the collective memory of Turkey and its diasporas. By screening excerpts from iconic Turkish horror films, the talk aims to performatively investigate how this genre has been repurposed to serve contemporary Turkish political narratives over the past twenty years.

The night will close with a DJ set by SIGA, who will take us on a worldwide journey through the night, where he will stimulate feelings of celebration and grieve at the same time. Genres: Ambient, Fourth World, Psychedelic Turkish Jazz, Arabic stuff, Teenage Rage, TikTok hits, and more.

If you have a Museumnacht ticket and would like to attend the conversation with Elif Satanaya Özbay and EMIRHAKIN, please RSVP here. Kindly note that the event can only be accessed with a Museumnacht ticket

Tickets are available via the website of Museumnacht.

19:00 Doors open
19:30-21:00 Conversation Elif Satanaya Özbay and EMIRHAKIN
21:30-01:30 DJ set SIGA
02:00 Doors close

Elif Satanaya Özbay is an Amsterdam-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans performances, installations, and essays. With a background in film, she draws from her Turkish-Circassian heritage and horror cinema to investigate narrative construction through montage, collage, and scenographic interventions. Özbay’s work reconfigures personal history, folklore, and pop culture, blending the familiar with the uncanny to explore the role of the unreliable narrator. Her layered, immersive works challenge conventional storytelling, creating speculative spaces that question cultural and historical narratives. Through this, she navigates the intersections of memory, myth, and materiality, crafting new meanings from recontextualized objects and stories.

EMIRHAKIN poses urgent yet open questions about the influence of contemporary politics on our human psyche. Navigating through the ever-changing signs and symbols of our times, the artist is mainly curious about the things that are being put in places that they are not supposed to be, serving as reminders that meaning often emerges through this arbitrariness. His practice encompasses the mediums of performance, text, video, and installation, which are translated into visual (and non-visual) indexes. By challenging the bodily experience of the artist and the audience, his long-durational pieces dismantle the predefined ways of observing and performing, consider the space beyond physicality as a negotiation, and resist the constructed idea of time through the modes of queer temporalities.

SIGA will take us on a worldwide journey through the night, where he will stimulate feelings of celebration and grieve at the same time. Expect to stare and browse into your own soul, or maybe Shazam some tunes every now and then. One thing is for sure, you’ll at least have a little dance before the end of the night, because if we don’t dance for our triumphs, who will? Genres: Ambient, Fourth World, Psychedelic Turkish Jazz, Arabic stuff, Teenage Rage, TikTok hits, and more.

Images by Elodie Vreeburg

Visit Marnix’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

By drawing, Marnix van Uum (living and working in The Hague—he/him) tries to understand how the narrative qualities of emotions and memories shape his identity. Some drawings focus on daily experiences whereas others try to relive and reshape certain moments from the past.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Dagmar’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

Dagmar Bosma (living and working in Rotterdam—they/he) is an artist, writer, and gleaner currently working around trans*ing movements of ruination. Whenever they have the chance, they like to glean scrap metal at post-industrial sites.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Karin’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

The work of Karin Iturralde Nurnberg (living and working in Amsterdam—she/her) sprouts edible out of solid environments, pleading for the possibility to resist the concrete air conditioning in the room of her first therapist, who mocked her because she was eighteen and mentioned she wanted to be free. /oops Her practice comes to soothe her and provides means to read herself, re-dream herself, find a community of worldbuilders to exchange with and create or maintain a space in to accommodate expressions that are otherwise unfitting. She has a multidisciplinary approach where walking, encounter and direct experience are ways to start creative processes.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Afra’s & Hend’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists.

Afra Eisma (living and working between Amsterdam and The Hague—she/they) creates immersive interactive installations with large-scale tapestries and colorful ceramics. Using bright colors and playful approaches to engage with darker emotions and experiences is a recurring method. Garments veil activist slogans, a stomach becomes a container for rumblings, large scale tapestries invite you to gently engage. Eisma creates room for anger, ambiguity, and reflection. Alongside Eisma’s artistic practice, the artist is involved in various activist initiatives in the Netherlands.

Hend Samir (living and working between Amsterdam and Cairo—she/her) works primarily as a painter but also uses graphic print, mixed media and video. In her work, she layers desire, adventure and fantasy over seemingly mundane situations. Using acrylic paint on canvas, she builds her scenes like a collage, combining elements of personal family photos (or those of strangers), magazines and internet images. The paintings are portals to a disturbing, alchemical world. On her canvases, figures emerge slowly—like geological forms surfacing over thousands of years, brought to life by the fluid pressure of her brushstrokes.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Kenneth’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

Kenneth Aidoo (living and working in Amsterdam—he/him) works across multiple disciplines. With his work, he engages in the conversation around the position of people of African descent. By making video-installations on the African diaspora, he speaks about the heritage of a shared history. In his painted portraits, he sheds light on the forgotten narratives of African people and displays their presence throughout history, in a refusal to neglect its erasure.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Esraa’s Mind

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 these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

Esraa Elfeky (living and working in Cairo—she/her) is a multimedia artist working with video, sculpture, drawing, sound, and installation. Her work unearths the complex relationships that exist between the natural world, the body, time, and the urban environment. For the past five years, Elfeky has navigated themes such the apocalypse, decay, and resurrection as an ongoing exploration of her native country. The often overlooked landscape of the desert becomes a site for imagination, solitude, storytelling, and reflection on both historical and political events.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Citizen’s Circle

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 mean to participate in a democracy? This circle will prompt reflection on embracing discomfort, of sitting across from a fellow human, fostering a moment where we can talk, hold space for each other, and listen.

TIME calls this “The Ultimate Election Year’ with 64 countries (plus the European Union) going to the polls globally. That’s 49% of the combined population whose votes—amidst the backdrop of many resistance movements—will set the course of what democracy will look like in the future. Meenakshi is interested in the interconnectedness of the struggle for liberation, whether it’s combatting sexual violence or eradicating settler colonialism. How do these issues intertwine? Rooted in the idea of politics of love in India, this workshop recognizes that our freedoms are inseparable from one another, and that we must learn from each other’s perspectives in the pursuit for a better world.

Citizen’s Circle will include a brief discussion of the video work titled The Great Intangible: for the love of a politics of love (in two parts), which is being screened as a part of Outside the Soup. Please join us on Saturday 6 July for this special gathering!

This workshop is part of Outside the Soup, a group exhibition that emphasizes the potential of art to create new worldviews through radical imagination and artistic experimentation; placing care, solidarity, and trust at the forefront.

Citizen’s Circle is organized in collaboration with Kunstinstituut Melly and is supported by The Polis Project. The visit of Meenakshi Thirukode is made possible by the International Visitors Programme of the Nieuwe Instituut with support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Tickets are available via the Eventbrite page for the event.

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.