Every Act of Struggle: Intrusion and Assembly

Opening programme, Every Act of Struggle: April 24–25
Extensive public programme with discussions, readings and listening.

Collective study in Times of Emergency: May 8–9
Two-day public programme with L’internationale Online.

Screening, Every Act of Struggle: May 9, 7:15–9pm and May 25, 7:15–9pm
The first of two film screenings around the exhibition Every Act Of Struggle.
Filmtheater Kriterion

Closing programme, Every Act of Struggle: May 23–24
A two-day closing programme of the exhibition.

Over the past two years, a complex discourse has emerged concerning the ways in which cultural institutions in the Netherlands navigate questions of historical violence and systemic injustice in the context of their colonial history. Artists have employed various strategies to urge these institutions to address these issues, often merging activism with their artistic practice. While some actions have brought these matters to public attention, much of the discourse continues to unfold in private, with many institutions adopting cautious or noncommittal stances. This current dynamic recalls earlier moments in history, namely the debates sparked by the cultural boycott of South Africa and the anti-apartheid movement of the 1960s through the 1980s in the Netherlands, when cultural institutions faced similar pressures to critically reflect on their roles. 

Adopting a methodology by School of Intrusions, the artists in this exhibition have been meeting in various archives and locations in Amsterdam, with each meeting or intrusion at a new site being led by a different artist. They look through research material, read texts collectively and discuss various cases of anti-apartheid campaigns, actions led by artist movements and institutional reactions. For the duration of the presentation at de Appel, new and former artworks by the artists Noor Abed, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Chad Cordeiro, and Pieter Paul Pothoven will be exhibited. The exhibition space around the works will be converted into a hospitable assembly space by architect and artist Iswanto Hartono to host activations by sharing open research and study sessions with audiences. The research will continue past the exhibition culminating in another public moment in 2026.

The different meetings and research sessions lead to many open questions such as: What were the motivations for joining the anti-apartheid movements in the Netherlands? What was apartheid in South Africa and how is it similar to Israeli apartheid practiced in Palestine today? What tactics were adopted by anti-apartheid movements in the Netherlands? How did cultural institutions respond to actions and cultural boycotts by artists? What happened to the bravery of the seventies and eighties?

Iswanto Hartono converted de Appel into a space where different forms of assembly can take place, based on horizontal discussion practice and participation. Taking the design and structure of Fridskul in documenta fifteen—a space that served as a repository for shared resources, knowledge, stories, and experiences—as the starting point, Hartono designed a hospitable space allowing for the artworks to be interspersed within it, and for different public programmes to take place. Sjambok library is a modular and portable library made by Chad Cordeiro, containing an ever-changing set of books about art in relation to the anti-apartheid movement. The library functions as a communal space, which travels and touches down in different localities. Pieter Paul Pothoven contributes to the exhibition with the spoken monologue observatie contra observatie, a dramatised account of events surrounding the first attack that was claimed by RARA (Revolutionaire Anti-Racistische Actie), a group that fought in the 1980s and 90s against racism, oppression, and exploitation. His new work Notes—fragmented, incomplete—after an anti-apartheid poster by Jan Wolkers (Boykot Outspan Aktie, 1978), Pothoven investigates the history of this poster, his own initial shock reaction and the way in which the poster could resonate with the present. While Noor Abed’s work is a recording of a reading and discussion of Stars at Midday –نجوم الضُهر,  a personal production diary in which the artist and filmmaker compiles visual and poetic notes from the production phase of her film A Night We Held Between, filmed in Palestine in 2023 with family and friends. In the performative installation A Loooooong Ass Message, ya dig? by Simnikiwe Buhlungu an old fax machine delivers a message that spills over a stack of office boxes. This indirect presence of the artist speaks to questions around lack of access. The interruption of the gallery’s telephone line to deliver faxes of “the content erased and re-erased by art institutions” points to the importance of inserting politicised work that speaks against this erasure. This rendition of the same work from 2018 will include readers-as-faxers/faxers-as-readers from Bethlehem, Palestine and Johannesburg, South Africa

Several public programmes offer glimpses into the ongoing research by the artists. On the opening programme on Thursday 24 April, Noor Abed, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Chad Cordeiro, Iswanto Hartono, Lara Khaldi, and Pieter Paul Pothoven will share their research and engage in a discussion, after which Noor Abed will read from her book Reading of Stars at Midday. The programme closes with a listening session around sound material by Andrei Van Wyk and Dirar Kalash. On Friday 25 April, Piete Paul Pothoven will read from the script of observatie contra observatie, followed by Resistant Energies a research sharing and study session with Miriyam Aouragh, Karl Moubarak, Omar Jabary Salamanca where they will speak about the deep dive they are taking into the archives of IISH, The International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam), exploring visual evidence of creative strategies, community organising, publishing, and concepts for and of infra-resistance. . The evening closes with a talk by Mitchell Esajas on the transnational, collaborative project by The Black Archives, and the initiative CAPE x NL, a temporary intervention in the Camissa Museum. It is located in the Castle of Good Hope, the oldest remaining colonial building in South Africa, constructed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The building holds a painful history of displacement, enslavement and oppression. 

On Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9, de Appel collaborates with L’internationale Online for the public programme Collective Study in Times of Emergency, highlighting their publishing strand with public readings, listening sessions and gathering with friends. While some sessions will be open to the public, others will be closed discussions. Joining are the artists contribution to Every Act of Struggle at de Appel, Learning Palestine, Françoise Vergés in conversation with Charles Esche, Rasha Salti, Rana Issa, Layal Ftouni, Subversive Film in conversation with the Black Archives. A film screening around the exhibition will take place on Sunday 11 May at Filmtheater Kriterion. The closing public programme on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 of Every Act of Struggle will include discussions on cultural boycotts in relation to South Africa and Palestine as well as ‘Narratives of Neutrality in the Netherlands’ by Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, other themes that will be discussed are archival research around liberation struggles.  More information on the programme will be published on de Appel’s website.