INVITATION – Every Act of Struggle: Intrusion and Assembly

April 22, 2025
9:56 am

Pieter Paul Pothoven / Visual Arts / Sacatar Fellow 2016 & 2018 / Netherlands
pieterpaulpothoven.com

Friends, comrades, colleagues,

I would like to invite you to Every Act of Struggle: Intrusion and Assembly at De Appel in Amsterdam. This group exhibition is curated by School of Intrusions and the participating artists: Noor Abed, Chad Cordeiro, Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Pieter Paul Pothoven, with a spatial design by Iswanto Hartono.

Every Act of Struggle: Intrusion and Assembly
De Appel, Amsterdam, April 24 – May 24, 2025

There is an extensive public program, looking forward to seeing you there!

Thursday 24 and Friday 25 April, 4-9pm: Opening Public Program
Thursday 8 and Friday 9 May: Collective study in Times of Emergency with L’internationale Online
Sunday 11 May, 7.15pm: Film screening at Filmtheater Kriterion
Friday 23 and Saturday 24 May: Closing Public Program
Sunday 25 May, 7.15pm: Film screening at Filmtheater Kriterion

Keep an eye on the website of De Appel for updates and tickets

I will show two works:

observatie contra observatie

2020, installation with spoken monologue (15min 44sec), FM-radio transmitter with antenna, radios, take-away posters

observatie contra observatie is part of my research project with the Revolutionary Anti-Racist Action (RARA). RARA is an anonymous collective that fought against racism, oppression and exploitation in the 1980s and 1990s against the legacies of the Netherlands’ colonial past, which still persist today. observatie contra observatie is a spoken monologue; a dramatised account of events surrounding the first attack that was claimed by RARA and forced Makro to pull out of South Africa. I wrote the script for the character who speaks from the perspective of several of the activists involved, based on interviews and historical documents. The monologue is broadcast using a radio transmitter built by someone who was involved in RARA. The script is made available on take-away posters that also feature a photo of the wood-burning stove that RARA used not only for heating, but also for burning evidence.

In collaboration with activists that were involved in RARA – Revolutionary Anti-Racist Action, Khadija El Kharraz Alami (voice actor), Liet Lenshoek (dramaturgy), Katrien de Klein (editing), De Slapende Hond (sound studio), and studioHendriksen (design poster).

Members of anti-apartheid organization Boykot Outspan Aktie demonstrating against the visit of a South African official in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, NL. Source: Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, April 7, 1978

Notes – fragmented, incomplete – after Jan Wolkers (Boykot Outspan Aktie, 1978)

2025,  Silkscreen posters, 68 x 68 cm

Dutch artist and writer Jan Wolkers designed a poster in 1978 for the anti-apartheid organization Boykot Outspan Aktie, which was founded by Esau du Plessis in 1970. The organization campaigned for a boycott of Outspan fruit, especially oranges. The campaign was successful: within ten years, it was no longer possible to buy ‘blood oranges’ in Dutch supermarkets. For the work Notes – fragmented, incomplete – after Jan Wolkers (Boykot Outspan Aktie, 1978), I am investigating the history of the poster, my own initial shock reaction, and the way in which the poster resonates with the present. I will present my research and questions around the poster during the closing event of the exhibition

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Made possible by the generous support of De Appel, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Stichting Niemeijer Fonds, Fonds Kwadraat and Stichting Stokroos

Caption – Image 1: Bardhi Haliti & Zuzana Zuzana Kostelanská. Archief Anti-Apartheidsbeweging Nederland (Amsterdam), International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, NL