Participants

Anke Bangma (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Director Tent, Rotterdam

Curator, based in Rotterdam. Since 2016, I have been artistic director of TENT, platform for contemporary art in Rotterdam. Here, I organise a programme of exhibitions, new productions, performances and events, connecting the urban culture in which TENT is embedded with discussions and developments that matter in the global context.From 2011-2016, I was curator contemporary art at the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, where I was involved in critical debates about the legacies of colonial histories in the present and the contemporary significance of ethnographic collections, realised exhibitions and commissions with artists, and worked with historical imagery from the museum’s photography archives. Over the years, I have also always been involved in art education, as course director of the MA Fine Art at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (1998-2007), programme advisor for DAS Theatre in Amsterdam (2010-present), and as associate professor and research supervisor at Bergen National Academy of the Arts in Norway (2004-2011). Recent and forthcoming curatorial projects include solo exhibitions with Erick Beltran, Nicola lo Calzo, , Pilar Mata Dupont, Julien Grossmann, Esther Kokmeijer, Jompet Kuswidananto, Charl Landvreugd and Anouk Steketee; and group exhibitions such as Anytime Now (2018), In a World We Can’t See (2018), Going Back to Forget (2017), Global Imaginations (2015, co-curated with Manon Braat, Meta Knol and others), Look at Me (2014), Imagined Places (2012), and Performing Evidence (2009).

Frédérique Bergholtz (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Director If I can’t dance, Amsterdam

She previously was director of Marres, centre for contemporary art in Maastricht (1998–2005) and Exedra in Hilversum (1998-1996). She curated Art Sheffield – Life: A User’s Manual (2010, together with Annie Fletcher) and the performance programme of Festival a/d Werf in Utrecht (2005, 2006 and 2007). She studied art history at Utrecht University and teaches at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem and at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. In her current position as director of If I Can’t Dance, Bergholtz commissioned numerous artists performance works amongst which Gerard Byrne, Yael Davids, Mariana Castillo Deball, Matti Braun, Suchan Kinoshita, Jon Mikel Euba, Sarah Pierce, Keren Cytter, Joachim Koester, Gerry Bibby, Emily Roysdon, Sara van der Heide, and Snejanka Mihaylova. She also collaborated with curators on extensive research projects on the work of amongst others Guy de Cointet, Matt Mullican, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Louise Lawler, Babette Mangolte, and Lucy Lippard.

Ane Bülow (DK) South-Africa
Advisor Visual Arts, Danish Arts Foundation, Copenhagen

Ane Bülow (DK), adviser in department for visual arts, Danish Arts Foundation since 2014. Work assignments focus on national and international overview, organizing i.e. the international curator’s visiting program and speech writing for the minister for culture.
With an MA in art history form University of Copenhagen, Ane Bülow has earlier served a range of different positions on the Danish art scene. She has written extensively for art professionel media such as kunstkritikk.dk but has also been involved with Copenhagen Art Week and worked as assistant curator at the Copenhagen kunsthalle GL STRAND. Prior to this Ane Bülow served as director of the galleries Andersen’s Contemporary and Kirkhoff Contemporary (closed now) and has been involved with numerous independent projects on the art scene.

Birgit Donker (NL) Johannesburg & Harare
Director Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam

Since 1 June 2012, Birgit Donker is director of the new Mondriaan Fund, the national funding organisation for the visual arts and cultural heritage that resulted from the merger between Fonds BKVB and the Mondriaan Foundation. Birgit Donker (1965) worked as an art reviewer for NRC Handelsblad, after serving as this newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief between 2006 and 2010. Donker studied Early Modern History and Historiography at the University of Amsterdam, followed by Journalism at the École Superieure de Journalisme in Paris and the advanced certificate programme ‘Analyse du monde actuel’, also in Paris.

Olivia Fahmy (CH) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Curator based in Lausanne, Switzerland

She graduated from the University of both Lausanne and Bern with a Bachelor in History of Art, Political Science and History (2014). During her Master degree, she focused on the history of exhibition and contemporary photography. She is now completing her education with a MA specialization in Digital Humanities. Between 2014 and 2017, she has been working as an associate curator at the Musée d’art de Pully (CH) where she was in charge of contemporary artists’ exhibitions and in particular Sophie Bouvier Ausländer (2014), Luc Andrié (2016) and collective exhibitions of photography curated by Pauline Martin (2017). Lately, she curated the exhibition Going Where We Come From (2017-2018), an alternative exhibition in the streets of Athens happening beside Documenta14. Invited last year by Marie Dupasquier at the art space Display for a residency in Berlin, she will now collaborate with the Center of Photography (Geneva). In the past, she has been working at the Contemporary Art Center of Yverdon-les-Bains, at the CHUV for their contemporary art collection, as a trainee at the Schweizerische Institut für Kunst (SIK-ISEA) and for the Rath Gallery in Berlin. Since 2015 she has created with Sophie Ballmer, Anne Sylvie Henchoz and Guillaume Pilet the independent art space TUNNEL TUNNEL (Lausanne) in order to pursue curatorial projects.

Doris Gassert (CH) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Research Curator Fotomuseum Winterthur

Doris Gassert is Research Curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, where she co-curates SITUATIONS, runs the blog Still Searching… and is responsible for Fotomuseum’s publications.
With SITUATIONS, a research and exhibition format that investigates current changes in photographic media and culture, she helps develop Fotomuseum’s program and understanding of post-photography. She holds a PhD in media studies from the University of Basel, Switzerland, where she teaches media aesthetics, with a focus on the intermediality and epistemology of photography and the politics of representation.

Anders Jensen (DK) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Director Holstebro Art Museum, Holstebro

Anders Gaardboe Jensen is a Danish art historian who graduated from the University of Copenhagen and University of California San Diego. The Holstebro Kunstmuseum was founded in 1967 and has collections primarily of Danish modernism and contemporary art, international contemporary art, a collection of prints as well as extensive collections of Balinese and African art. Jensen has curated and co-curated exhibitions featuring amongst others: Elmgreen & Dragset, Uffe Isolotto, Peter Linde Busk, Ulrik Heltoft, Maiken Bent, Steinar Haga Kristensen, Marie Lund, Daniel Richter, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Jonathan Meese, Georg Baselitz, Adrian Piper, and Alex Da Corte. He holds a number of positions of trust and memberships (the Danish Association of Art Historians, The Danish Arts Foundation, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, ICOM, Danish Visual Artists, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts).

Patricia Kaersenhout (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Artist / activist / womanist, Amsterdam

Born in the Netherlands but a descendant from Surinamese parents, Patricia Kaersenhout developed an artistic journey in which she investigates her Surinamese background in relation to her upbringing in a West European culture. The political thread in her work raises questions about the African Diaspora’s movements and it’s relation to feminism, sexuality, racism and the history of slavery. She considers her art practice to be a social one. With her projects she empowers (young) men and women of color and supporting un documented refugee women.

Proud Rebels is a project about an important black feminist wave which took place in the 80ties and was funded by CBK Zuidoost and Amsterdam Fund for the arts. In 2015 she went to Dakar invited by the Dutch embassy to do a preventive project on female trafficking. She is a regular lecturer at the Decolonial summer school in Middelburg, the Black summer school in Amsterdam and at B.E.B.O.P( Black Europe Body politics). She just finished a community project quoting The Dinner Party of Judy Chicago. Only this time black women and women of colour who are erased and forgotten by West European history, are honoured. Her recent solo show Blood Sugar deals with the painful history of enslaved people, blood and sugar. By revealing forgotten histories she tries to regain dignity. She frequently has shows in the Netherlands and abroad. In November 2017 she participated in Prospects 4, the New Orleans Biennial. This year she was selected to participate at Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Italy.
FB Page: Guess who’s coming to dinner too? / FB page: Proud Rebels

Lissa Kinnaer (B) South-Africa
International relations visual arts Flanders Arts Institute, Brussels

Lissa Kinnaer (BE, 1979) is responsible for international relations for visual arts at the Flanders Arts Institute, the sector institute promoting the visual arts, performing arts and music scene in Flanders, Belgium. She holds an Master’s in Germanic Literature from the Free University of Brussels and a Master’s in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London. From 2004 to 2006, she worked as project coordinator for several artistic organisations a.o. INIVA, the Institute of International Visual Arts in London, BOZAR – Center for Fine Arts and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. From 2006 to 2011, she was the coordinator of the Réseau des Arts à Bruxelles, a Brussels based cultural network.  In March 2011, she was appointed international relations officer at BAM, the Flemish Institute for Visual, Audiovisual and Media Art which is part of Flanders Arts Institute since January 2015.

Helena Kritis (B)  South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Programmer (audio)visual arts program at the multidisciplinary arts centre Beursschouwburg, Brussels

She’s also a member of the short film selection committee for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). She holds master’s degrees in photography from KASK School of Arts Ghent (2003) and in Art History / Performing Arts & Media Studies from Ghent University (2006). For Beursschouwburg she curated solo exhibitions with emerging artists like Meggy Rustamova, Hana Miletic and Feiko Beckers. Additionally, she invited numerous international artists for screenings, presentations or performances such as Milo Rau, Wu Tsang, Laure Prouvost, Yuri Ancarani, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Karl Holmqvist, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, etc. She is a board member of the Courtisane Festival (Ghent), the cinephile online reflection platform sabzian.be, and the artist run production and distribution platform Elephy. She has a seat in the funding committee for visual arts (Flemish Government) and she recently joined the acquisition committee for the collection of the Flemish Parliament.

Kit Leunbach (DK) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Curator and Head of Press at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen

She holds an MA in Visual Culture and a BA in Art History from the University of Copenhagen and has received further education in Critical Exhibitions Studies from the University of Gothenburg.
Since 2009 she has curated, co-curated and produced a number of exhibitions at Den Frie. A smaller selection include: Tue Greenfort eats Den Frie, a solo presentation by Tue Greenfort, 2017. Cheese, video installation by Mika Rottenberg, 2017. Native, Exotic, Normal, a solo exhibition with the artist duo Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, 2016. Supersub – On Collectivism, an exhibition with five Indonesian Art collectives, 2016. Those who love spiders, and let them sleep in their hair, an exhibition with the Iranian, Dubai-based art trio Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian, 2016.
Kit was previously employed at Nikolaj Kunsthal and The Danish Arts Foundation and occasionally gives guest lectures at the University of Copenhagen.
At the time of writing, she is working on two exhibitions, which she has curated. A comprehensive presentation of the artist duo Vinyl, Terror & Horror, as well as an exhibition with another artist duo, benandsebastian, which shows the installation of Departments of Voids – Den Frie.
The primary purpose of Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art is to show exhibitions rooted in the collective tradition and is especially focused on contemporary artistic communities, artists’ associations and experimental groups and networks. The house is built and owned by artists with the fundamental aim to show the latest in contemporary art. Through approximately 10 exhibitions each year, Den Frie presents an interesting and varied exhibition program with both Danish and international artists, all of which relate to current issues. The house functions as a platform for contemporary art productions with participation of a great variety of artists and close dialogue between artworks, artists and audience.

Anette Østerby (DK) Zimbabwe 
Head of Department, Visual Arts, Agency for Culture and Palaces / Danish Arts Foundation, Copenhagen

Anette Østerby has a background in Art history specializing in contemporary art and has been working as a curator both freelance and in museums. She has since 2004 been working with the Danish Arts Foundation being responsible for the visual arts department and for funding and promotion of visual arts both nationally and internationally, which includes the Danish Pavillon in Venice. The last couple of years she has also been in charge of support for Art in Public Spaces and the board of the Danish Arts Foundation.

Haco de Ridder (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
International visitors program manager Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam

Is responsible for the international visitors program and the organization of the annual Orientation trip of the Mondriaan Fund (2007-now). Between 2003 and 2006 he worked as a freelancer where he was responsible for commissioners as the Prince Claus Fund, The Amsterdam Foundation for the Arts, the municipality of Haarlem, Art Basel-Miami Beach and for various artists and galleries in The Netherlands.

Florian Weigl (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Curator V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam

Florian Weigl (1985) is a curator and researcher interested in the intersection between contemporary art, science, technology and it’s social impact. In 2015 he joined the curatorial team of V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media, an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology, working on both presenting and co-producing artworks and research. He is among other things responsible for V2_’s public program, the event series Test_Lab, initiated the live experiment series 3×3 and curatorial support during the short-term international residency program Summer Sessions. Alongside his work at V2_, Florian works as independent curator working close with artist as curator / producer. He is an advisor for Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunsten, part of the Culture Advisory Committee Province Overijssel and Gelderland a supervisory board member for Het Kunstlokaal at DeSchool, Amsterdam. Before joining V2_ he was part of DeVerdieping, the cultural basement of TrouwAmsterdam, worked as programmer art in public space at NDSM-werf in Amsterdam (working with amongst others Henk Schut, Valerie van Leersum, Sylvie Zijlmans & Hewald Jongenelis) has curated the three day symposium Bright Collisions (with amongst others Julian Oliver, Eric Kluitenberg, Daan Roosegaarde, Markus Bader [RaumlaborBerlin], Christ Salter, Joost Rekveld and Caro Verbeek about art and technology and the future of art at TodaysArt festival in The Hague co-curated FIBER festival ’11 and ’12, has worked with the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Non-fiction, and Oude Kerk, Amsterdam.

Farren van Wyk (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Artist, Putten

Farren van Wyk (1993) was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa but has been living in The Netherlands since she was six. She is part of a worldwide subculture called ‘Transnationals’. This anthropological term refers to people with two nationalities. Having these two nationalities gave her the feeling of belonging and not belonging at the same time. Researching identity and nationality became the crux of her work.
Her main sources of inspiration are anthropology and psychology, but she visually studies South African subcultures to see if she could still belong there and call it home. By using big format analogue cameras she has the opportunity and time to connect with the people she portrays.
Whilst researching the South African gang culture during her four month stay in Port Elizabeth, she chose to show a more positive and humane side in a short film and a series of eighteen black and white portraits. With this project she received her Bachelor of Arts in Photography in 2016 at the University of Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
In 2017 she was part of the 100 New Dutch Photography Talents. Her graduation project has been exhibited during the annual Photo Rotterdam 2018 edition and at Pop and Art Poduim de Melkweg Amsterdam.
Currently she is researching the ‘Born Free Generation’ of South Africa. It is the generation that was born around 1994, during the time that South Africa was making its first steps towards democracy.
She is also the full time assistant of esteemed Photograher Jaya Peluppessy. During periodical semesters she is the assistant teacher for the first year Photography students in the course Dark Room Printing and Research lessons at the University of the Arts, Utrecht.

Annet Zondervan (NL) South-Africa & Zimbabwe
Art historian, curator, teacher and director CBK-Zuid-Oost, Amsterdam

CBK Zuidoost is a community-based contemporary art center located in Amsterdam South East. The programme of CBK Zuidoost consists of exhibitions, art education and talent development, an international artist-in-residence, commissions for permanent and temporarily art in public space and an art library. The intercultural society of city district South East is a continuous source of inspiration for my team and me. With our program we reflect on current social and political issues that are important to our audience such as identity issues as well as colonial heritage. The lives and perceptions of our audience also determine our program. In this way, we not only attract art professionals but also people who are interested in the subject and then in the art. We periodically provide our audience an active role as a consultant or as a creator. Creating a sense of ‘ownership’ is important to CBK Zuidoost.
CBK Zuidoost is located in Amsterdam South East, one of the many districts that comprise the city and a relatively new part of Amsterdam that came into existence just 50 years ago. South East is situated on the outskirts of Amsterdam. It is a community with many immigrants and with a characteristic Afro-Caribbean identity.