A Slow Conversation on Sustainable Practice

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 without burning ourselves down first? Let’s slow down for a moment, get personal, get engaged together, and move from there.    

This workshop is for students and beginning artists, designers and artistic researchers to exchange gained knowledge and ideas about what a sustainable art practice could look like – especially while taking your own needs and resources into account.

For this occasion, Urgent Ecologies (Gerrit Rietveld Academie) also invited several artists, designers, and artistic researchers to join the conversations in small groups. In between the conversations we will do body-awareness exercises by Rosalie Bak (affective, artistic researcher and haptonomic professional). 

During the workshop we will move between an individual and collective perspective by means of connecting to ourselves, the space we are holding together, and our shared responsibility for the world – we are also part of. We will highlight the importance of the moment itself and create a physical, collective output made of clay that will be part of the exhibition PPP by collective Sunflower Soup at W139.

Walk-in — 13:30
Start workshop— 14:00

Do you want to participate? Reserve your spot on the Eventbrite-page of the event.
Participation is free, but donations are very welcome. There are limited spots available.

Urgent Ecologies is an initiative of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie that focuses on fostering a fundamental ecological and sustainable approach throughout all levels of the academy—within (art) education, institutional activities, and policy. It aims to integrate sustainability as both a topic of discussion and a practice embedded in the day-to-day functioning of the academy.
 Urgent Ecologies provides policy advice and initiates, supports, and highlights various projects, events, and collaborations. Some initiatives have been a pilot project to create a vegan canteen, a community garden on campus (the Garden Department), a fund to encourage the use of sustainable production methods, and a materials library.

Rosalie Bak works at the intersection of affective research, embodiment, and spatial practices, with a strong focus on ecology, art, and somatic care. As an artist and haptonomic professional she is interested in the ambiguous relationship between people and their non/living environments and explores how to make complex predicaments experiential through the body. Her multidisciplinary practice spans from the development of new methodologies and pedagogies to storytelling, writing and the design of workshops, walks and experiences, often working with communities, scientists, (artistic) research groups and the more-than-human world.

Mariana Jurado Rico is an artist and curator working with printing, installation, publishing, radio, and video performance to facilitate points of merger between people. Her works build situations with elements of humor, failure, impatience, and contradiction as tools of resistance. Currently she is working on different collaborative projects that tackle her interest in independent initiatives and self-initiated processes.

Together with Francisca Khamis Giacoman, she founded Espacio Estamos Bien (EEB),  an autonomous non-autonomous space for contradictory things to happen based in Amsterdam that organizes gatherings, publications, exhibitions, and other formats. EEB started plotting the idea of a new space in Amsterdam—not necessarily a physical one—that could provide an affective and supportive context. A space for those who do not belong in the institutional circuit. A space that is always changing, always moving, but always available. EEB is an initiator of conversations and a facilitator of situations. 

Nina van Hartkamp is a multidisciplinary artist, botanical dyer, and story weaver. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2020. Her research-based practice unfolds through socially engaged projects that explore the interconnections between humans, non-humans, and the environment.

Working with materials such as plants, microbes, second-hand textiles, audio, video, and performance, Nina’s projects grow out of intimate exchanges with people and places. Her work is guided by questions of belonging, co-existence, and planetary interdependence.

Through site-specific, immersive experiences—including public installations, collective rituals, and community workshops—she invites participants and audiences to reflect on their relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. Her work offers poetic resistance to extractive systems, individualism, capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. 

Harriet Rose Morley is a UK-born artist, researcher, and initiator based in the Netherlands since 2018. Her practice explores the gender and labour politics of technical skill within art, design, and architecture, focusing on the working conditions of cultural and technical practitioners. Through her ongoing research Hard Work, Soft Work, she investigates both visible technical skills and undervalued soft skills essential to collective work. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and a Dutch MA program, she has led material- and collaboration-based projects, taught across UK and Dutch institutions, and worked with diverse disciplines from architecture to blacksmithing. From 2023–2025, she was Co-Director of Platform BK. In 2025, she will be a Tech Fellow at the Rijksakademie and a resident at Kunsthal Gent.

Amalie ‘Sveske’ Ourø  is a Danish artist who has been living, studying and working in the Netherlands since 2018. Her work, mostly performative and site-specific, can be best described as art-anthropology and is inspired by her curiosity about humanity and reflections of the inner workings of our society. Through her work she actively engages with the audience through acts of play and subversion, inviting them to think critically about diverse societal urgencies within the field of sociology, urbanism, and ecology — encouraging meaningful and sustainable change along the way. Amalie Sveske Ourø is part of the art and garden collectives; The Garden Department (Gerrit Rietveld Academie) and Pleasure Ground.

Joakim Derlow is an artist who specialises in fragmented narratives and spatial comics. His practice brings together objects, found items, drawings and his own performative presence to tell stories of a fragmented nature. These elements thrive on their own, but are meant to be seen in a site specific arrangement which provokes the associations and perspectives of an audience. It is their mending eyes that read out trails or a sequence – inso forming the notion of a narrative.

Ancient West African Principles

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. Amou, a local Obiya man (medicine man).

After screening the film, spiritual holistic therapist Orsine Walden will dissect the ritual conducted in A wasi in JawJaw, through a lecture on ancient West African principles.    

Orsine Walden is a spiritual healer, poet and holistic therapist applying ancient African principles. Walden descends from the Marron Saamaka freedom fighters, who built their own communities and have resisted slavery not only in Suriname, but also in other regions on the South American continent.

At the age of 17, Walden was initiated by her grandmother Yaadoka into the Winti world of faith. She started her own spiritual holistic therapy practice since age 23.

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

Meet Rainbow Soulclub #2

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 discussion on homelessness and housing in Amsterdam with Malika Amghar, a vegan spring roll workshop with Ting, and the classic Free Advice sessions with various Rainbow Soulclub members—get answers to all your life questions from an unexpected perspective.

Live music: Jacques (guitar and vocals)
Food: Soup by George & Perry (vegan)
Guided tour of the space – Tomas, George, Saskia

Malika Amghar has been working for more than 20 years in the social domain of Amsterdam on practical and creative solutions regarding homelessness and housing at De Regenboog Groep. Her focus is on what is possible and what does work: “I find coming up with solutions fascinating and challenging; my passion lies in removing a root cause in the system. I don’t like mopping with the tap running.

Picture by Maarten Nauw / Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Meet Rainbow Soulclub #1

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 spiritual education in the tent with Mimosa, and join an open discussion with human rights lawyer Eva Bezem. Take part in a vegan spring roll workshop with Ting and experience the classic Free Advice sessions with Rainbow Soulclub members, where you can get answers to life’s big and small questions from a fresh perspective.

Eva Bezem has been a human rights lawyer for many years, specializing in migration law. She is particularly committed to advocating for the legal status of Surinamese former Dutch nationals. In 2024, Eva submitted a residence permit application for 100 ‘former Dutch Surinamese’ individuals.

Picture by Maarten Nauw / Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

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.