The six short videos Plantations and Museums give background to the Balot NFT. The series is available to watch with Dutch subtitles here. For English subtitles, watch the series below.
Part 1: The revolt
“In 1911, a remarkable system was installed by Unilever: a system of forced labour.”
Charles Gize Sikitele (Pende historian, author of The Revolt of the Pende, University of Kinshasa)
Part 2: The Sculpture
“The sculpture was hidden. When the Belgians came, they ransacked the whole place”.
Zoë Strother, art historian, co – author of Art with Fight in It, Columbia University.
Part 3: The Plunder
“There is no other way to defeat imperialism, than to build your own world.’
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay (author of ‘Potential History – Unlearning Imperialism’, Brown University)
Part 4: The Museum
“The people who critique you may be under the assumption those who live on the plantation are not interested in art, or are not capable of art. You have to be strong and say: we do this for ourselves, for our community. We have the right to art.”
Simon Gikandi (author of ‘Slavery and the Culture of Taste”, Princeton University)
Part 5: The Collector
“I think this enormous concentration on the return of physical objects is reactionary. It is about ideas.”
Herbert Weiss (leading Western expert on the Kwilu’s protest movements notably its independence struggle, co–author of Art with Fight in It, collector of this sculpture)
Part 6: The Return
“That would be a very interesting possibility to explore, to be able to share the work back”
Richard Woodward (co–author of Art with Fight in It, former curator Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
The series is a co-production of Pieter van Huystee Film and VPRO, in collaboration with CATPC and Human Activities, supported by the NPO-fund.
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