Een plaatsje in de zon

2022

A collaboration with dramaturge and researcher Jeffrey Gan about Indo-Dutch identity, memory, and migrations

Installation with Indo rock n’ roll records, tropical plants from a local Amsterdam florist, film screenings, potluck, and facilitated discussions over the course of three days at W139, Amsterdam

In 1961, the Dutch government produced a propaganda documentary aimed at recent refugees from the former Dutch colonies of Indonesia. Titled “Een Plaatsje in de Zon,” - a little place in the sun - and directed by Jan Van Hilo, it encouraged tropical “repatriates” to abandon The Netherlands for the sunshine of the California coast. 60,000 people would make that choice.

Long buried in the Bell en Geluid archive, “Een Plaatsje in de Zon” has only recently re-emerged. Our research indicates that the film has not been publicly shown since it was screened at Indo community meetings in The Netherlands in the early 1960’s. Today, this film is both a reminder of the Netherland’s continued hostility towards refugee settlement within Dutch borders and a document of a boom-time California that is rapidly changed. This newly-newly-digitalized version of the film was screened for research & discussion purposes, and subtitled in English by Jeffrey Gan.

This collaborative project was intended as an opportunity to explore how we make our own heat - make a welcoming community in places which are home-but-not-home - and share ongoing research practices of both artists related to our personal histories and stories.

W139, Amsterdam