FORUM: Constellations

Please be aware that the program will be predominantly in Dutch.

Our program FORUM: Constellations invites everyone, young and old, to deepen the conversations around the exhibition My Oma and experience the exhibition in a new way. What do different generations in families tell us? How do we experience the stories that our grandmother or grandfather told or tell us? And what do we do with those stories?

Join us for our dynamic program on Saturday, April 13 from 2 pm till 5 pm. A program that includes a panel discussion, spoken word performances, music performances, film screenings and a children's book reading. The afternoon will be divided into two rounds with some activities taking place simultaneously. See the schedule for the starting times! The language of communication for the panel, spoken word performances and the reading show is Dutch.

The language of communication for the panel, spoken word performances and the reading show is Dutch.

Purchase your ticket using the buttons below. Tickets for the entire program are available for €8 including the panel with The Sugared Enterprise. Tickets for the program without the panel are available for €6. Anyone 18 and under can reserve a free ticket below! Also for adults coming with the children.

Panel and spoken word: The Sugared Enterprise

Tyler and Sebastian Koudijzer will take us on a recent journey they made with their grandparents through Suriname. On this journey, they passed all the places their grandparents left, over 50 years ago, when they came to the Netherlands. For FORUM, they will talk with their grandmother about this journey and about her memories of the places of her youth. They will also pay tribute to their grandmother by performing some spoken word pieces.

Music performances

Curious about the collective sounds of Tayler Calister and Louis Windzak? Tayler is a young guitarist making his way in the music world and Louis is a soul singer active since the 1960s. Together they combine their talents to bridge a generation gap and show that age plays no role in learning from each other.

Film screenings

Diana Al-Halabi: The Disaster Cannot Be Contained
In 2020, a disaster struck Beirut: the city was damaged by the largest non-nuclear explosion in history, resulting in hundreds of casualties. Filmmaker Diana Al-Halabi has a love of ports and has worked in Beirut's port in the past. She draws a poetic parallel between the port of Rotterdam, where she was when she heard about the explosion, and that of Beirut. The explosion struck Beirut at its core, but the stories reach much further.

Yusser al Obaidi: My watan is not a burning house, it is my bibi's home
Yusser's grandmother, her bibi, takes the audience on her own journey across borders. This conversation between Yusser al Obaidi and her bibi shows how political oppression plays out in both geographical and social spaces.

Uriël Matahelumual: Goldfish for Breakfast
Seniors Atifah, Mel and Rita live together on a ship and often have breakfast together. This time the breakfast is slightly different because they are going to celebrate the birthday of goldfish El Tigre, for the first time since the death of beloved resident Leviy. While preparing for the birthday, everyone finds out that Leviy left a hole and they do not know how to deal with the grief of her death - a hole they cannot fill with blueberry muffins, but with the help of an unknown guest.

The film Goldfish for Breakfast is an end result of the fifth edition of our annual education program CLIP (Collective learning In practice).

Meriem Bennani: Siham & Hafida
Also on view during FORUM is the video work Siham & Hafida by Meriem Bennani. Part of the My Oma exhibition, the work provides insight into the lives of two rival chikha artists. The women practice a traditional form of dance and song that is prominent in Moroccan nightlife and parties, and at the same time was a form of resistance during the French colonial era: Aita.

Book reading and workshop for children

Who are today's superheroes? Faizi, the Reading Father, will read to the children from a superhero book “There’s a superhero in your book” written by Tom Fletcher. Following the reading, the children will get to work and make their own superhero cape or a mask to honor the real young heroes in Gaza and Palestine. For this workshop we ask all participants to bring their own old t-shirt that may be cut and glued into. During the FORUM program, there will also be a fundraiser for aid to Gaza. The money will then be donated through GoFundMe to Palestinian families with children who need to start building new lives and could use all the help they can get.

There will also be an opportunity to donate to Palestine Fund of Plant an Olive Tree Foundation, which supports people in need with food, nutrition, clothing and medical assistance, among other necessary things.