Spatial Encounters #2: Unsettling Colonial Legacies
- Date
- 25 November 2025
- Time
- 17:00 -19:00
- Location
- BG 3
- Room
- VOX-POP
On Tuesday, November 25, VOX-POP resident Zoi Psimmenou brings together a roundtable of scholars, curators and exhibition-makers to reflect on these questions through their work on projects that attempt to unsettle the colonial legacies embedded in institutional structures, collections, and spaces.
From curatorial narratives to spatial interventions, join this discussion to explore how art, space and exhibition-making can urge critical reflection, amplify marginalized voices, and challenge inherited narratives of power.
Practical information
The programme runs from 17:00 to 19:00. The discussion is in English. Registration is free.
Speakers
Dr. Corina L. Apostol is Assistant Professor of Social Practice in Contemporary Art and Culture at the University of Amsterdam and co-coordinator of the Artistic Research Research Group (ARRG). She curated the Estonian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and was part of the international research project Beyond Matter (2020–23). Formerly curator at Tallinn Art Hall and Mellon Fellow at Creative Time, she has organized major exhibitions including Shelter Festival (Helsinki) and Flora Fantastic (New York). She is co-editor of Oliver Ressler: Barricading the Ice Sheets (2023) and serves on the ARIAS advisory board.
Head of Exhibitions, Framer Framed
Jean is a cultural worker and taciturn artist based in Amsterdam. Since 2018, he is part of Framer Framed, where he currently serves as Head of Exhibitions. In his work as a producer, Jean emphasises hands-on labor, collaboration, and a holistic approach to exhibition-making that foregrounds soft structures and horizontal decision-making. This methodology is expressed through the self-initiated project DIT: Do It Together (2022), and in projects with collectives: Charging Myths (2023) with On-Trade-Off, and Tanah Merdeka(2023) with Taring Padi. Jean has also engaged in zine-making and printmaking; performed in theatre; and ran a time-based exhibition space in Mexico.
Curator Surinamica, Allard Pierson
Isabelle Best is the Curator of Surinamica at the Allard Pierson, the museum and heritage collections of the University of Amsterdam. Her work focuses on the sustainable and inclusive expansion of the Surinamica Collection, which explores the colonial and postcolonial entanglements between Suriname and the Netherlands. Best’s vision for the collection is to create a space where Surinamese and diasporic voices are in active dialogue with colonial archives, recognizing oral traditions, contemporary literature, and community-based knowledge as integral components of cultural heritage within the Allard Pierson.
Laurien de Gelder is the curator of a part of the archaeological collections in the Allard Pierson. Her specialization is in the history of Mediterranean archeology, museum archaeology and the history of archaeological collecting and provenance research. She teaches at the UvA in courses about current issues in (archaeological) museums and object-based research.
About Zoi Psimmenou
Zoi Psimmenou is an interdisciplinary researcher, content developer, public programmer, and exhibition designer with a background in architecture and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Amsterdam. She bridges research, curation, and spatial design to create embodied and activating encounters with art, design, and architectural heritage. Her work draws on critical museology and decolonial theory to explore how space, exhibition design, and curatorial practice can unsettle authoritative power structures and foster critical, socially engaged exhibition experiences. She continues this inquiry through the public programme Spatial Encounters as Resident Programme Curator at VOX-POP.
