Workshops on assumptions and feelings around skin colour
How can theatrical workshops offer insight into our unconscious feelings and emotions around the theme of skin colour? What is their relationship with our colonial past? How do they affect our social interaction today?
Black Lives Matter, Black Pete, the unrest with regards to monuments, cultural institutions distancing themselves from their namesake, there is a lot going on in the Netherlands and much of it seems to go back to our colonial past. Studies in Black and White is an artistic investigation into the sensitivities around racism in our society. The series of workshops is organised by Creative Court in collaboration with theatre maker and drama therapist Giselle Vegter / Hotel Eldorado in the framework of H401’s EU project Heritage Contact Zone.
The three pilot workshops are on invitation only and take place on Saturday 24 October, Saturday 14 November and Saturday 5 December. Through artistic methods from the Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal) and drama therapy, we examine our experiences, feelings and emotions concerning skin colour and see how we give (other) words to them. The starting point is the idea that artistic forms of work can provide new knowledge and insights, complementing existing scientific research.
Giselle Vegter and Rabiaâ Benlahbib will work with a diverse group of 8 participants.
Due to the workshops being a pilot and the need for a curated safe space and in the light of the Corona-related health and safety protocols the workshops are by invitation only.
The findings from the workshops will inform the work of Heritage Contact Zone and the research of Creative Court in The Innocence Lab. We will share outcomes and project perspectives in early 2021 along with possibilities to engage.
The workshops will take place at H401, Herengracht 401, Amsterdam. Each workshop lasts from 13 – 17.30h, with a half hour break. Participants attend the entire series of three workshops. We do not offer a fee for participation and the workshops are free of charge.