glaring at the world through rear view

“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others. Those who were there in the olden days, they told stories to the children so that the children would know, so that the children could tell stories to their children. And so on, and so on.” ― Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing

As part of our Talking Heads series, we reached out to ruangrupa, the curator collective of the previous edition of sonsbeek (2016) and the curators of the upcoming documenta 15 (2022). As with our previous Talking Heads episode, the conversation freewheeled into ruangrupa’s curatorial practice–a practice that is rooted in experiment, collectivity, trust, while also discussing the limits and possibilities of archives. With Antonia Alampi, Aude Mgba, Krista Jantowski, Gesyada Siregar, Farid Rakun, and reinaart vanhoe.

In this edition of our monthly bulletin, we have selected four films that deal with the archive and archival practices in different ways. They show us how archives have influenced our perception of histories or how they work to prolong certain legacies. Some films try to question archival entries or even disrupt the archive. Or they care to try to add histories that would otherwise be lost.

In this new commission for our Home Office Stories Series, Mali is writing to tell her younger self, Marcue, about the turbulence the world is witnessing at the moment and how she continues to work during times of hibernation, loneliness, and longing.

Gianmaria Colpani, Wigbertson Julian Isenia, and Naomie Pieter | This roundtable stages a conversation amongst activists and cultural producers involved in feminist and queer of colour politics in the Netherlands from the 1980s to the present. Its primary focus is on the collectives and initiatives that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, such as SUHO (Surinamese Homosexuals), Flamboyant, Zami, Sister Outsider, and Strange Fruit. With Anne Krul, Tieneke Sumter, Andre Reeder, Marlon Reina, and Ajamu.

In this new piece commissioned for the space of our editorial room, artist Antonio Jose Guzman builds a memorial in sound and visuals to the recent murder in Minnesota of George Floyd, embedding it in the sonic and visual texture of his ongoing project The Electric Dub Station. sonsbeek20-24 commissioned a new chapter of this investigative artistic research that addresses the legacy of colonialism and of transatlantic relations by foregrounding the trade of indigo plants and the birth and growth of dub music.

In this music performance commissioned by sonsbeek, OTION blends elements of hip hop, storytelling, spirituality, and soul, within the DIY setting of his home in Amsterdam, to create a personal musical narrative of entangled Dutch colonial histories embodied by generations that continue to be present and affect the future, asking for some kind of personal reckoning.

This is the first episode of our new podcast series: Sonsbeek Memories. The memories are from Han Doornebosch, Clarien van Harten, Jan Meijering and Jan Provoost. The podcasts are part of the Open Call of the Sonsbeek Archive: an invitation to everyone to share all kinds of materials related to Sonsbeek exhibitions, including memories. By listening to the beautiful, personal memories and experiences, artworks are coming back to life in our imagination.

This playlist represents the Electric Dub Station Transcultural Black Atlantic diasporic research and the Latin American socialist DNA of many Afro- Latin American artists such as myself who grew up in the 70s.