FREE TO BE FREE
How free are you to be free? The answer to that question is not the same for everyone. Free to be Free is the latest site-specific performance by the Sites of Memory Foundation about freedom and resistance. Free to be Free takes the audience along stories and places associated with colonial history in Amersfoort, Deventer and Utrecht. Ticket sales have started!!
DATA 2023:
AMERSFOORT 15 - 18 June
DEVENTER 8 & 9 July
UTRECHT 7 - 15 October
Information about ticket sales will follow asap
VACANCIES
Will you join our team? Sites of Memory is looking for an Intern (assistant) Production.
Trainee (assistant) Production
As an intern, you help guide the creative and organizational process, such as thinking about production on location, creating and keeping track of the script and partial budget, support in the implementation of the performances and side programs.
Closing date: May 25, 2023
Are you interested? Send your motivation letter and CV to Katy Streek - info@sitesofmemory.nl
Find the full vacancy text through the link below.

RETURNING THE GAZE - MIDDELBURG
“Returning The Gaze: stories that feel far away are made visible and close in an artistic way. I could hear and feel the history moving around which made me feel emerged in the past” - De Theaterkrant

In closing of the performance Returning the Gaze, a series of thirteen portraits on fabric are revealed created by visual artist Judith Westerveld, in accordance with the Sites of Memory team. They depict women of colour that lived in Amsterdam, or the former colonies of the Netherlands in the 17th, 18th and 19th century, that we felt needed to be given a rightful place in the exhibition Panorama Amsterdam of the Amsterdam Museum. Find information about ordering a portrait below.
On four long banners that drape the ‘catwalk’ where the closing scene takes place, the portraits that are presented are silhouettes linked to the names of twelve women of colour whose stories recorded in archives spoke to us: Charlotte Magdalena Reda, Elisabeth Maria Antonia Aspasia, Wilhelmina Kelderman, Cathalina del Monte, Clara, Francesca, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel, Lea van Bali, Serafina van Brazilië, Sara Malagesa, Chistina van Geugten and Juliana. Judith Westerveld created the silhouettes based on portraits made of women of colour by various artists, such as Rembrandt, Frans van Mieris, Cornelis van Dalen (II) and Cornelis de Bruin, who drew or painted them without recording their name.
The silhouettes are placed against contemporary photographs of the places in Amsterdam where these women lived, worked, and died, such as the area in and around the Jodenbreestraat that was home to a small Afro-Atlantic community, the Jordaan, the grand canal houses of the so called 'Goudenbocht', and the Diaconie Oude Vrouwenhuis. Or the places where they were married, baptized and buried, such as the Möses and Aaron Kerk and the Zuiderkerk. Illustrations of hibiscus, ginger and podosiri (açaipalm), plants whose roots and leaves, flowers and fruits have healing properties, frame the portraits of the women.
In the middle of the ‘catwalk’ the portraits of Susanna Dumion, Serafina van Brazilië, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel and Charlotte Magdalena Reda are highlighted. These are large rectangular fabrics, the women’s faces and names framed by the healing plants. Hibiscus envelopes Susanna Dumion and Charlotte Magdalena Reda. Ginger envelopes Serafina van Brazilië. Podosiri (açaipalm) envelopes Mimi Elizabeth Kambel.
Susanna Dumion’s portrait stands out, as it is the only one that is not a silhouette. In 1813, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, a portrait was made of her that has been preserved in the collection of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. It is a special document, as there are few portraits of (formerly) enslaved women whose name and life story are known. Judith Westerveld altered Susanna Dumion’s portrait based on the research the team of Sites of Memory did about her life. Exchanging her hat for an angisa folded in the pattern that communicates the coded message ‘Let Them Talk’, adding a shawl in the same batik fabric and a necklace, returns her Surinamese identity to the portrait.
Purchase a portrait
The portraits of Susanna Dumion, Serafina van Brazilië, Mimi Elizabeth Kambel and Charlotte Magdalena Reda have been made into a high quality art print and can be purchased by sending an email to info@sitesofmemory.nl.
Size: 30 x 40 cm
Medium: Pigmented Inkjet print on Hahnemuhle White Velvet 270g paper.
Price: €40





Credit: Judith Westerveld
Listen to the podcast about Returning the Gaze in Amsterdam. Dionne Verwey will be in conversation with Jennifer Tosch (co-founder Sites of Memory and founder Black Heritage Tours) and Maurice Zeleky (Head of Marketing and Communication Amsterdam Museum). They discuss the collaboration between Sites of Memory and Amsterdam Museum and the need for institutions to share underrepresented stories with the public.

The artists' collective Sites of Memory was approached to create a prelude in the run-up to the Scheepvaartmuseum's new exhibition 'The Atlantic World'. This resulted in the art installation ‘Decoding the Atlantic World’, and is a collaboration between Sites of Memory founders Jennifer Tosch, Katy Streek and artists Raul Balai and Jarrett Erasmus.

CREATIVE ARCHIVE
Did you miss the performance Future for the Past or would you like to revisit some of the stories? You can now visit our Creative Archive, a space where you can read background information about the sites, listen to performance text and watch 360 videos. This space allows you to navigate through stories from The Netherlands to South Africa, from past, present and future.


TICKETS

Get your tickets for Free to be Free in Amersfoort & Utrecht!

AMERSFOORT
Free to be Free can be seen between 15 and 18 June 2023 in Sint Aegtenkapel, Amersfoort. This site specific performance is about the colonial history of Amersfoort. Local underexposed stories are interspersed with scenes of dance, poetry, and live music on location in the city.
The performance lasts 60 minutes and is in Dutch, with texts in English, Sranan Tongo and Papiamentu.

UTRECHT
Free to be Free can be seen on 7, 8, 12, 13, and 14 October 2023 in Stadsschouwburg Utrecht. This site specific performance is about the colonial history of Utrecht. Local underexposed stories are interspersed with scenes of dance, poetry, and live music on location in the city.
The performance lasts 60 minutes and is in Dutch, with texts in English, Sranan Tongo and Papiamentu.
