KEYNOTE by Charl Landvreugd: Notes on Wakaman (he who moves in all spaces)

Join us for a KEYNOTE by artist and researcher, Dr Charl Landvreugd, and followed by a Q&A moderated by Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum. The KEYNOTE is part of a two-day talks program with Landvreugd in collaboration with the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, 20 and 21 February 2020.

Notes on Wakaman (he who moves in all spaces)
Curatorial strategies in the age of diversity thinking.

Dr. Charl Landvreugd is a researcher and artist who grew up in Rotterdam in an environment and time when many different migrant communities were making the Netherlands their home. He is one of the Netherlands’ foremost voices advocating, discussing and critiquing the discourse of ‘diversity’ in the arts and society at large. In this KEYNOTE lecture, Landvreugd will open his recently completed PhD research to the public for the first time, focusing in particular on the roving and artist-led project Wakaman that from 2005 – 2009 made unprecedented connections for art-making across Suriname and the Netherlands. Landvreugd will delve into the project and the paradoxes it faced, reflecting upon its ongoing significance to the current era of ‘diversity thinking’ in the Netherlands. A Q & A will then be moderated by Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum, a renowned figure at the interface of Dutch and international decolonizing agendas in the arts.

This KEYNOTE is presented in collaboration with the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten. In this two-part program Landvreugd will focus on his artistic practice in a lecture in Amsterdam on Thursday February 20, while sharing a his PhD research in Rotterdam on Friday February 21.