Undesirables

PERFORMANCE | 18 April | 19.00 - 20.30 | Framer Framed, Amsterdam

During this performance artist filmmaker Sabine Groenewegen shares from her ongoing research on the Dutch colonial plantocracy. Groenewegen's research is a furtherance of her artwork and film Surrounding Silences that was on display in the exhibition Imprints at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam in 2024-2025. In the early 20th century Dutch planters founded a private secret service in Sumatra to surveil, intimidate and exile those they labelled as ‘undesirables’. Their reports reveal anxiety about union organizers, women’s movements and satay vendors passing revolutionary messages. Using the archival documents against the grain, the artist unearths resistance to racial capitalism despite attempts to suppress it.

Image credit: Nationaal Archief, Archiefnummer: 2.20.46, Inventarisnummer: 61. Stukken betreffende de oprichting, werkzaamheden en rapportage van de Inlichtingendienst van de Deli Planters Vereeniging.