Am I Black
24/01/2013

Debate

Thursday 24 January

Starting 4:30 p.m.

Language: Dutch

Admission free, reservations through: mail@smba.nl

with: Dr. Aspha Bijnaar, Sara Blokland, Remy Jungerman, Charl Landvreugd, Rob Perrée, Macha Roesink and Annet Zondervan.

Is there space in the Netherlands and on the European continent in general, to make local ethnic issues part of the local art discourse on the basis of issues coming from the Black community? And, in this way establish an Afro-European thinking about art that could be part of the general art policies?

The Anglo-American art world has available to it a very well developed Afro-American and Black British (critical) theory from which the works by Black artist can be positioned in a broader general social discourse. This fact is also applicable to the African continent and the Caribbean.

Up until now there is no official tradition of Afro-European art criticism and discourse to provide a context for criticizing the work made by Black artists in continental Europe. If we want to form an opinion about the work the only models available to us are the British-American, African and Caribbean lines of inquiry next to the dominant discourse of the European country in case.

With these limitations in the back of our mind, works produced by Afro-European artists only resonate within these existing frameworks.

This observation is the basis for the debate ‘Am I Black’ in the in Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. The central question is whether it is useful to think along racial and ethnic lines about contemporary art in the Netherlands, and if it could be useful to develop an Afro-Dutch and Afro-European art discourse? Is there space in the Netherlands and on the European continent in general, to make local ethnic issues part of the local art discourse on the basis of issues coming from the Black community? And, in this way establish an Afro-European thinking about art that could be part of the general art policies?

A light is thrown on these questions by initiator Charl Landvreugd and placed in an international context by art historian Rob Perrée. After this there is a discussion between Macha Roesink (de Paviljoens), Annet Zondervan (CBK Zuidoost) and the artist-curators Remy Jungerman and Sara Blokland. The debate is moderated by Dr. Aspha Bijnaar.

Read more (in Dutch)


News Archive

2013

2012

2011

Made in Commons Events
30/11/2013
Amsterdam Art Weekend 2013
29/11/2013
‘Collecting Geographies – Global Programming and Museums of Modern Art’
13/10/2013
Spaces of Exception in Moscow
11/09/2013
Scenographies Prologues Reading Group
10/09/2013
Call for BijlmAIR 2014
05/09/2013
Lecture by Joshua Simon
27/08/2013
This Summer no exhibition in SMBA
24/07/2013
Diego Tonus – Processing Authorities
03/07/2013
noa language school
25/06/2013
BijlmAIR: Clarence Albert - Artist talk and BBQ
08/06/2013
Presentation and interview Wilfredo Prieto
06/06/2013
Renzo Martens: The Institute for Human Activities
26/05/2013
The exhibition ‘Hollandaise’ opens in Dakar
09/04/2013
BijlmAIR : Maria Guggenbichler, SISTER FROM ANOTHER MISTER
01/04/2013
Lecture Dr. Bert Hoppe
23/03/2013
The Rise now on show in MAMAM, Recife, Brazil
22/03/2013
Jérôme Chazeix resident at BijlmAIR
21/03/2013
Partial closure on Tuesday 26 March
10/03/2013
Bruno Latour’s Politics of Nature Reading Group in SMBA
10/02/2013
Wendelien van Oldenborgh's La Javanaise at the Berlinale
07/02/2013
Am I Black
24/01/2013
Global Collaborations
11/01/2013
Onomatopee and Serge Onnen present: Book launch ‘The Lost Cent’
10/01/2013