10 March 2015 : Gestures of Protest, workshop and debate at the Maagdenhuis. With the participation of We Are Here, Florian Göttke and Stephanie Morphew.

| tag: Amsterdam

Workshop and debate are addressing the regimes that govern and interlock the protests of asylum-seekers and education-seekers.

Workshop: 14.00 – 15.30h (meeting point: Maagdenhuis)

We are here (self-organised refugee group in Amsterdam):
Staying visible and appropriating political, public, educational and cultural -spaces is part of their strategy in claiming their rights. Sinan, Ahmed and Mayama will talk about their struggle and many different gestures they used during their ongoing protest for 2,5 years now.

Florian Göttke (Artist, PhD Researcher at ASCA and Dutch Art Institute) Burning Effigies - Performing Protest
I will present an introduction into a playful protest genre that has roots in rituals celebrating change as well as practices of social control. I will focus on the practice’s effects on the involved social groups, as well as on its ability to attract the attention of the media.

Stephanie Morphew (MA, Theatre Studies): Achieving Visibility:
Introducing the grass roots activist group 'E15 Focus' who have gone from marginalised mothers to national news in the UK, and then covering how refugee groups have been using food as a method of communication and community building in London.

Debate: 16.00 – 18.00h
(Meeting point: Maagdenhuis)
Members of the Nieuwe Universiteit, members of We are here and artist Florian Göttke engage in a discussion about gestures of protest and creating visual identities.