Onze Roeping – On Joyful Militancy, 2022

With a focus on the Potato Riots (Aardappeloproer) in 1917, the performative walks rehearse, reenact and re-enhance the intimacy and support within such movements and reflect on the following questions: what are the affective elements lying underneath these events, if we consider that ‘tenderness and vulnerability can thrive alongside these militant commitments’? How did household economies evolve since then and what has been the role of the public space in it?

Taking these considerations as a starting point, the walks in the Jordaan unfolded through a sequence of embodied material (infra)structures such as the disappearing gangen (passages), barricades and bridges, but also self made domestic tools, aprons and carrier bags. Brought together with today’s feminist struggles, the performative walks activate hidden sites and secret relationships with the city’s history and architecture.