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Openingsevening My Friend. My Enemy. My Society.

April 28th, 2013

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‘DRIEKLEUREN OPERA’ – 4 mei Theater na de Dam

April 22nd, 2013

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Tot elkaar veroordeeld ? – Friendly Enemies in de kunst

April 4th, 2013

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Tentoonstelling SHAPESHIFTING

March 26th, 2013

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Call for Applications for a Curator-in-Residence in Amsterdam 2013

February 26th, 2013

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De Ziel Krijgt Voeten… en wandelt het boek in

February 24th, 2013

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The Many Manifestations of Castrum Peregrini

January 15th, 2013

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Vrijheidsonderzoek

January 15th, 2013

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Castrum Peregrini in 2012 and 2013

January 10th, 2013

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De waarheid is een vrouw

December 18th, 2012

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Gisèle – Freunde von Freunden & Die Zeit

November 14th, 2012

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n8 2012 art in hiding, art in crisis

November 1st, 2012

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Herengracht 401
1017 BP Amsterdam
E: mail@h401.org
T: 0031 20 623 52 87

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Copyright ©️ 2026 Stichting Herengracht 401 (H401). 

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We warmly invite you to “𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗴 We warmly invite you to “𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗲, 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲”, a talk and collage exhibition by @victoriacaprilesm , presented as part of the @peace_mobilities project.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀? Through a selection of collages created during her own experience of forced displacement, Venezuelan human rights lawyer and visiting researcher Victoria explores migration, memory, belonging, and the everyday practices through which people rebuild their lives.

The exhibition presents a selection of collages from Victoria’s ongoing research, exploring displacement, belonging, and everyday peace. Following the exhibition, Victoria will be in conversation about her work as a human rights defender and researcher, discussing collage as an arts-based research method and its role in understanding experiences of mobility and peace.

The conversation will be moderated by 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗼́𝗻-𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗲𝗹, curator of the exhibition, who leads the advocacy work of a civil society organisation focused on mass atrocity prevention and freedom of religion or belief, bringing together advocates, policymakers and art practitioners.

✉️ RSVP: mail@h401.org
🗓️ Friday, 18 September 2026 | 17:30
📍 H401 – Herengracht 401

** H401 assisted with the research as partner of the Peace & Mobilities Consortium. For all partners and more information about this project go to: https://peaceandmobilities.org/

#PeaceAndMobilities #EverydayPeace #Displacement #Migration #HumanRights
Next week, join us in Brussels for the @training_c Next week, join us in Brussels for the @training_contactzone Final Conference: “Cultural Democracy in Contact Zones”, where we’ll explore how cultural participation can move beyond access to become a driver of dialogue, inclusion, and and democratic change.

🎤 Conference Highlights

✨ Thursday, 2 | July Culture for People, People for Culture
Drawing on his research Participation in Cultural Activities Strengthens Democracy and Social Cohesion – The Evidence, Angelos Agalianos (European Commission, DG EAC) will join @xanthakialexandra (UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights), and @lindtbarbaravan (KAAI Theatre) to discuss how cultural participation can strengthen democratic societies and inspire future cultural policy.

✨ Friday, 3 July | How Do We Make Structural Change?
Moderated by @fransdamman020 (H401), this session brings together @roelofsenromy , @gableroelofsen  and @benjamin.caton to explore how grassroots initiatives, cultural institutions, and policymaking can work together to create lasting structural change.

📅 2–3 July 2026
📍 Pianofabriek, Brussels (Rue du Fort 35, 1060 Saint-Gilles)
💻 Sessions will be also live-streamed
🔗 Full programme & registration in bio ⤻\

Let’s explore how culture can shape more inclusive, democratic futures.

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union through @erasmusplus_ot 

#TrainingForTheContactZone #TCZ #ContactZones #CulturalDemocracy #CulturalRights
Today, on International Museum Day, we celebrate m Today, on International Museum Day, we celebrate museums as living spaces of dialogue, imagination, and collective memory.

At H401 / House of Gisèle, we believe museums are not only places to preserve the past, but spaces to question, connect, and co-create futures together. Through art, performance, research, and encounter, we continue exploring how culture can become a contact zone where diverse voices meet.

Thank you to all artists, collaborators, communities, and visitors who keep this space alive. ✨ 

©️Freunde von Freunde
Today, on 🇪🇺 Europe Day, we celebrate not only the Today, on 🇪🇺 Europe Day, we celebrate not only the idea of Europe as a political project, but as a shared space for dialogue, cultural exchange, and collective imagination.

At @herengracht401 , we believe that culture can create meaningful encounters across differences and help shape more inclusive and democratic futures. Through our current European collaborations, we continue working with artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, and communities across borders to explore new ways of connecting people, histories, and perspectives.

✨ Our current European projects:
🔹 @training_contactzone 
Exploring how cultural and heritage spaces can become places of dialogue where diverse identities, memories, and perspectives coexist and actively shape shared futures.
🔹 @peace_mobilities 
Investigating the relationship between mobility, displacement, coexistence, and peacebuilding through artistic and socially engaged practices across Europe.
🔹 @contesteddesires 
Creating spaces for critical reflection and constructive dialogue around contested histories, public memory, colonial legacies, and cultural narratives in contemporary Europe.

Today reminds us that Europe is built not only through institutions, but through people, exchange, collaboration, and the courage to remain in dialogue.

Happy Europe Day from H401 💙

* The projects are co-funded by the European Union
Artists @efuasutherland , @emmidiately & Mohamed B Artists @efuasutherland , @emmidiately & Mohamed Ben Slama concluded their residency at @herengracht401 with a public process-sharing at @kunstfortvijfhuizen as part of the @contesteddesires project.

Through textiles, symbols, performance, and sound, the artists presented their ideas, research, and creative processes developed during their stay, engaging with the history of House of Gisele and the Amsterdam context.

At the same time, works by Dutch artists Charmaine de Heij and Sithabile Mlotshwa were on view creating a dialogue between works in progress and more completed pieces.

A moment of exchange, reflection, and artistic connection.

*CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues is Co-funded by the European Union*

#ArtistResidency #ArtandHeritage #AmsterdamArt #Decolonialism #ArtResearch 

@eccom_it @d6culture @xarkis__ @museodellecivilta @BJCEM @herengracht401 @proprogressione @muhnac @labonnebcn @museoegizio @creativecourt._ @cyprusuniversitytechnology @d6_eu_ @larnaka2030 @nubuke_foundation @museodelamemoria @uniuniofleicester @universityofcyprusg
Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday at H Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday at H401 for the talk by @d_bartlebooth as part of the @peace_mobilities project.

The talk revisited the legacy of Mexican artist Ulises Carrión and his years in Amsterdam, where the legendary bookshop and gallery “Other Books and So” became a quiet yet powerful catalyst for experimental practices in art and literature. Through Carrión’s ideas, the discussion explored how contemporary artists engage with representations of violence while imagining alternative proposals for peace.

We are grateful to Daniel for sharing his research developed during the residency and to everyone who joined the conversation.

Stay tuned for upcoming talks and activities at H401.

* H401 assisted with the research as partner of the Peace & Mobilities Consortium. 
For all partners and more information about this project go to: https://peaceandmobilities.org/

#H401 #UlisesCarrion #ArtistTalk #AmsterdamArt #LatinAmericanArt
Who is IN and who is OUT? From 28–30 January 2026, Who is IN and who is OUT?
From 28–30 January 2026, artists, cultural practitioners, museums, project partners and the wider public gathered in Amsterdam and Vijfhuizen for the third Capacity Building Workshop of @contesteddesires 

Across three days of workshops, artist-led sessions, and a public programme with active audience participation, we explored decolonial memory, queer visibility, inclusion, and social repair—reimagining heritage and commemorative spaces as sites for dialogue, reflection, and transformation.

Thank you to all speakers, artists, partners, participants, and community members who contributed to this collective exchange. ✨

📍 Amsterdam & Vijfhuizen
📅 January 2026
📸 @lndwstudio 

*CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues is Co-funded by the European Union*

#ContestedDesires #ArtForChange #ArtAndHeritage #DecolonialArt 

@eccom_it @d6culture @xarkis__ @museodellecivilta @BJCEM @herengracht401 @proprogressione @muhnac @labonnebcn @museoegizio @creativecourt._ @cyprusuniversitytechnology @d6_eu_ @larnaka2030 @nubuke_foundation @museodelamemoria @uniuniofleicester @universityofcyprus
Today we’re introducing our artist from Tunisia as Today we’re introducing our artist from Tunisia as part of the @contesteddesires project. 🇹🇳 

@mohamedbensalamamusic is a multidisciplinary artist working across sound and visual arts. A multi-instrumentalist, composer and ethnomusicologist, his practice explores and preserves North African musical and cultural heritage, focusing on indigenous communities and migration routes. Blending traditional Tunisian instruments with jazz and electronic music, his work bridges ancestral traditions and contemporary expression. 

His digital reflection mirrors the ongoing process of research and transformation within the CDCD residencies. 

Find more about Mohamed in our CDCD website! 
*Link in bio

*CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues is Co-funded by the European Union*

#ContestedDesires #ArtForChange #ArtAndHeritage #DecolonialArt 

@eccom_it @d6culture @xarkis__ @museodellecivilta @BJCEM @herengracht401 @proprogressione @muhnac @labonnebcn @museoegizio @creativecourt._ @cyprusuniversitytechnology @d6_eu_ @larnaka2030 @nubuke_foundation @museodelamemoria @uniuniofleicester @universityofcyprus
Today we’re introducing another of the artists tak Today we’re introducing another of the artists taking part in @contesteddesires project. 🚀

@emmidiately is a Cypriot–Dominican artist and musician whose collaborative practice moves across sound, performance, installation, code and writing. Blending DJ sets, field recordings, curated sound events and composition. His work explores cultural contradictions, diaspora and social memory. 

His digital reflection emerges from residencies during CDCD project. 

Emiddio Vasquez & Peter Eramian founders of @lowerlevantcompany in collaboration with Olga Micinska, merge bat calls, broadcasting and encrypted messages to reflect the ecological catastrophes wrought by colonial warfare in the Easter Mediterranean at @w139amsterdam as part of @sonicacts Bienal from Saturday Feb 7 till Sunday March 29.

Find more about Emiddio in our CDCD website!
*Link in bio

*CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues is Co-funded by the European Union*

#ContestedDesires #ArtForChange #ArtAndHeritage #DecolonialArt 

@eccom_it @d6culture @xarkis__ @museodellecivilta @BJCEM @herengracht401 @proprogressione @muhnac @labonnebcn @museoegizio @creativecourt._ @cyprusuniversitytechnology @d6_eu_ @larnaka2030 @nubuke_foundation @museodelamemoria @uniuniofleicester @universityofcyprus
Today we’re introducing one of the artists from Gh Today we’re introducing one of the artists from Ghana taking part in @contesteddesires project 🇬🇭 

@efuasutherland is a multidisciplinary artist working across performance, dance, sculpture, film and storytelling. Through the body, performative objects and myth-making, her practice explores power, custodianship and layered colonial histories, connecting past and future, spirit and material, elders and youth. 

Her digital reflection of transformation and social inclusion  is part of her residencies during CDCD project. 

Find more about Elisabeth work in our CDCD website!
*Link in bio

*CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues is Co-funded by the European Union* 

#ContestedDesires #ArtForChange #DecolonizeCulture #ArtAndHeritage #DecolonialArt 

@eccom_it @d6culture @xarkis__ @museodellecivilta @BJCEM @herengracht401 @proprogressione @muhnac @labonnebcn @museoegizio @creativecourt._ @cyprusuniversitytechnology @d6_eu_ @larnaka2030 @nubuke_foundation @museodelamemoria @uniuniofleicester @universityofcyprus
Today we start with our Project Partner Meeting an Today we start with our Project Partner Meeting and the Capacity Building under the framework of CDCD.
Our CDCD community will explore during these three days how heritage practices and commemorative spaces can engage with queer visibility, decolonial memory and social repair.
 
* CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues Co-funded by the European Union 🇪🇺
Who is IN and Who is OUT? Brings together artists, Who is IN and Who is OUT? Brings together artists, cultural practitioners and activists to explore queer visibility and decolonial memory and rethink culture as a space for inclusion, repair and transformation.

@rikyjanne works on queer representation, archiving and visibility at at IHLIA LGBTI Heritage.
@benjamin.caton reflects on decolonial practice, affinity spaces and collective healing ao as an Initiator of the Decolonial Indonesian Dutch Commemoration
@richardsandell_rcmg & @cesarecuzzola explore museums and heritage as tools for human rights and queer visibility at the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (University of Leicester).

Join us for a constructive dialogue on contested histories and inclusive futures!

Who is IN and Who is OUT? takes place in the framework of CDCD. 

Link in bio to register 

* CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues Co-funded by the European Union 🇪🇺
Who gets to be visible? Who gets to speak? And how Who gets to be visible? Who gets to speak? And how do we hold difference without exclusion? How to be inclusive without being to exclusive? What is the counter side of social inclusion? 

Who is IN and Who is OUT? invites you into a shared conversation on queer archives, decolonial memory, museums, heritage and social justice. A space for difficult questions, care-based dialogue and collective imagination.

Who is IN and Who is OUT? takes place in the framework of CDCD.

We warmly invite you to save the date for the public event on Thursday, 29 January, 19:00, Herengracht 470, Amsterdam. 

Link in bio to register 
 
* CONTESTED DESIRES Constructive Dialogues Co-funded by the European Union 🇪🇺
Last Wednesday, November 26th, we had the pleasure Last Wednesday, November 26th, we had the pleasure to step into the footsteps of the Mexican artist Ulises Carrión who was based in Amsterdam in the ‘70s/’80s. We were guided by Arnisa Zeqo, curator and director @kunsthuissyb through Carrión’s Amsterdam. Arnisa did extensive work on Carrión’s legacy: “...his output continues to have a deep impact on the ways in which I live and work as a writer, educator, and curator.” Arnisa a.o. coordinated a series of events The Society of Friends of Ulises Carrión during Documenta 14.

Ulises Carrión opened the first location of OTHER BOOKS and SO in 1975 at 227 Herengracht. Later he moved the shop down the street to a bigger space at Herengracht 259, but eventually closed in 1979. Carrión maintained his collection of artists’ publications, mail art, and ephemera under the name Other Books and So Archive, which was located at Bloemgracht until his death in 1989. Our walk retraced these Carrión landmarks. 
 
The walk took place in the framework of Peace and Mobilities, an EU Marie Curie Staff Exchange project which investigates the relation between people on the move and their  positive contribution to our societies. Peace and Mobilities researcher Daniel Sarmiento, currently in Amsterdam, is interested in Carrión’s years in Amsterdam: “this research may be of special interest to the project, given that Carrión’s work was crucial to Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. She was inspired by Carrión to develop the concepts of ‘deappropriative writings’ and ‘necrowritings’ as contemporary poetic proposals that respond artistically and politically to the necropolitical actions exercised by various state and parastate armed agents.”
 
H401 is the cultural non-academic partner within @peace_mobilities.
Join us in planting and help bring "Healing" an ar Join us in planting and help bring "Healing" an artwork to life on the fort island!

📍 Kunstfort Vijfhuizen
📅 Sunday 23 November
⏰ 14:00–16:00, followed by savoury tulip-bulb biscuits and tea to warm up together

We invite you to join a communal planting moment with artist Carlos Noronha Feio @carlosnoronhafeio on Sunday, 23 November at Kunstfort Vijfhuizen. Together, we will plant tulip bulbs in the letters of the previously excavated word 'HELING' which holds a double, even triple meaning of healing as well as "fencing of stolen goods". Everyone is welcome to take part!

The planting not only marks the start of an outdoor artwork made with tulips, but is also a symbolic act of healing, collaboration, and cultural cross-pollination. Together, we shape a process that embraces the seasons and invites new meanings and encounters. Come and join in, and experience how language, culture, and nature intertwine in a poetic gesture of togetherness. This spring, the growing and blooming artwork will be visible from afar!

The Portuguese artist Carlos Noronha Feio explores layers of identity, language, and cultural exchange in his work. His practice often moves between the personal and the collective, between history and the future. In February, Carlos was artist-in-residence at the Kunstfort as part of @contesteddesires, Constructive Dialogues (CDCD), a multi-year international project with a residency programme. In the Netherlands, this is organised by H401, Creative Court, and @kunstfortbijvijfhuizen.

Link in bio to sign up!
Training for the Contact Zone, Amsterdam Edition 2 Training for the Contact Zone, Amsterdam Edition
29 September - 1 October 2025

Fleur Ravensbergen @fleur_ravensbergen

On Wednesday October 1st, Fleur Ravenbergen's workshop extensively dealt with Module 2 Tensions and Opportunities in Cultural Heritage and Module 4 Skills for Cultural Mediation from the TCZ Curriculum

Fleur Ravensbergen is an independent conflict resolution and negotiation practitioner, and a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam in Conflict Resolution and Governance. She is a member of the Peace and Security Commission - Advisory Council of International Affairs which advises the Dutch Government and parliament on peace and security. She is the Facilitator for a large financial institutions' Human Rights Grievance and Remedy Mechanism and an Advisory Council Member for “Fight for Humanity” - a human rights NGO. She was co-founder and the Deputy Director of the Dialogue Advisory Group. 

In 2018 / 2019 Fleur Ravensbergen was co-moderating a series of think tank meetings at Herengracht 401, centred around diversity in our society. With a wide range of politicians, policy makers, artists and academics from accross Europe,  Turkey and Israel we came together, exchanged our thoughts and opions under ‘Chatham House Rules’. As a follow up of this series of “contact zone” meetings, we published the magazine ‘PERPLEX! – a travel magazine for those who are uncertain’.  In this magazine you find an interview with Fleur and her work “Talking to Men with Moustaches”- the illustration was made by Klara Graah.

Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) is a European project @erasmusplus_ot dedicated to rethinking adult education, with a special focus on museums and heritage learning. The project’s overarching goal is to strengthen European cohesion by encouraging dialogue and fostering shared cultural understanding.

TCZ consortium:
Culture Action Europe (BE)
Conexiones improbables (ES)
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR)
Goethe-Institut (RO)
Human Platform (HU)
PELE (PT)
H401 (NL)

All pictures taken by: @lndwstudio
Thanks to @goetheinstitut_niederlande
Day 2 We started this morning with a Mindfulness Day 2

We started this morning with a Mindfulness Session by Mirjam Blok. 
It is related to module 1 of the curriculum, more specifically to the learning outcomes:
·    Understand the concept of the Contact Zone, its theoretical roots, and its role in cultural mediation and memory work.
·    Explore different Contact Zone formats and select a personal case study to apply and deepen learning throughout the training.
We did this via a listening exercise, meditation and mirroring exercises. One of these exercises was based around the very simple question, at the same time at the heart of the contact zone: “what brings me here…?”, to be exercised and asked in duo’s, in a back to back position and in a repetitive manner this exercise brought us all in full concentration on the Training for the Contact Zone. The whole concept was to first ground and listen to yourself (in contact with yourself) to foster contact with others.

In the afternoon Het Geluid Maastricht, @roelofsenromy Roelofsen @gableroelofsen took the floor to share their method with all participants.

Het Geluid Maastricht (co)produces opera and music theatre performances, educational programs and socially engaged arts projects.
Their work is characterized by bringing together the ancient power of opera and (music) theatre with new techniques and social developments. They create music theatre as a bridge between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’, and in doing so Het Geluid investigate the world around us. A core question: how can music theatre contribute to an inclusive and critical society? Within their work Het Geluid Maastricht always searches for the primal power of (new) communities. By means of new connections and surprising combinations, we try to convert pressing issues into high-quality social-artistic music theatre in an innovative way. The committed way of working leads to productions or concepts with a strong social drive, aimed at socio-cultural and artistic innovation including individuals and communities with distance to the cultural sector. We want to pull the ‘great’ arts such as opera out of their isolation that is experienced as elitist and place them in the middle of society.

 pics @lndwstudio
Training for the Contact Zone Amsterdam Edition - Training for the Contact Zone Amsterdam Edition - 
23 September (online), 29 September, 30 September, 1 October 2025

As an alternative table speech, artist Merapi Obermayer presented her “How Are We Doing?” in a playful and serious manner at the same time, she emphasised the need to stay in dialogue with each other. 

Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) is a European project @erasmusplus_ot dedicated to rethinking adult education, with a special focus on museums and heritage learning. The project’s overarching goal is to strengthen European cohesion by encouraging dialogue and fostering shared cultural understanding.

The trainings are centered around the ‘contact zone’, a social and cultural space where diverse and often conflicting perspectives, experiences, and histories come into contact, co-exist, and are negotiated. These zones are not passive meeting points. Rather, they are actively facilitated spaces of encounter, often around heritage, where conflict is seen not as something to be avoided but as a catalyst for creativity, dialogue, and social transformation.

TCZ consortium:
Culture Action Europe (BE)
Conexiones improbables (ES)
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR)
Goethe-Institut (RO)
Human Platform (HU)
PELE (PT)
H401 (NL)

All pictures taken by: @lndwstudio
Thanks to @goetheinstitut_niederlande
Training for the Contact Zone Amsterdam Edition - Training for the Contact Zone Amsterdam Edition - 
23 September (online), 29 September, 30 September, 1 October 2025

we closed the first day with Maxim de Heer @maximdeheer (Module 2 Tensions and Opportunities in Cultural Heritage). Maxim de Heer studied Cultural heritage and Sociology. He researched the relationship between food, cultural identity and migration. Currently he works on a documentary about food culture and migration in Sicily.

Maxim took the concept of commensality as a starting point for his contribution to Training for the Contact Zone; eating together as a way to explore and create contact zones, bring people together, closer in an informal space for dialogue. His carefully chosen menu with a personal touch, was a powerful reminder of how food can spark conversations about, culture, memory and togetherness.

As an alternative table speech, artist Merapi Obermayer presented her “How Are We Doing?” in a playful and serious manner at the same time, she emphasised the need to stay in dialogue with each other. 

Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) is a European project @erasmusplus_ot dedicated to rethinking adult education, with a special focus on museums and heritage learning. The project’s overarching goal is to strengthen European cohesion by encouraging dialogue and fostering shared cultural understanding.

The trainings are centered around the ‘contact zone’, a social and cultural space where diverse and often conflicting perspectives, experiences, and histories come into contact, co-exist, and are negotiated. These zones are not passive meeting points. Rather, they are actively facilitated spaces of encounter, often around heritage, where conflict is seen not as something to be avoided but as a catalyst for creativity, dialogue, and social transformation.

TCZ consortium:
Culture Action Europe (BE)
Conexiones improbables (ES)
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR)
Goethe-Institut (RO)
Human Platform (HU)
PELE (PT)
H401 (NL)

All pictures taken by: @lndwstudio
Thanks to @goetheinstitut_niederlande
Training for the Contact Zone 23 September (onlin Training for the Contact Zone

23 September (online), 29 September, 30 September, 1 October 2025

Day 1

During the first online meeting with all participants TCZ Amsterdam, dr Mario Panico @mariopanico  Memory studies scholar university Bologna (IT) focussed on Multivocality Narratives and Resistance, Representation and Resignification. He brought this in relation to World War II and the colonial power abroad. Mario took as good practice the example of the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance museum) Amsterdam.

 
In 2015 curator Vincent van Velsen @vanvelsenvincent (Module 1) realised the exhibition exclude / include Alternate Histories at H401. This exhibition took a critical stance towards history, wherein decisions about in- and exclusion of narratives, ideas, individuals and groups are emphasized and brought into contact with alternative views on common ideas – taking into account that no (hi)story emphasizes the true, correct or complete version.

Also a few of his other projects were discussed about the NL discours of post-colonialism, a.o. Christianity and Slavery  / Christendom en Slavernij (2024) at Catharijne convent Utrecht and Soengoe Kondre / Verzonken Leven (2023) at Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam. All examples that are at the heart of what we consider core for ‘Training for the Contact Zone; opening up the dialogue.

After the break we made an Exploratory Walk and Collective Cartography exercise coordinated by TCZ partners PELE (PT) @pele.associacao and Conexiones Improbables @conexiones_improbables (ES).

TCZ consortium:
Culture Action Europe (BE)
Conexiones improbables (ES)
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR)
Goethe-Institut (RO)
Human Platform (HU)
PELE (PT)
H401 (NL)

All pictures taken by: @lndwstudio
Thanks to @goetheinstitut_niederlande
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