30.11.2024–30.03.2025
Buhlebezwe Siwani
ulwela amaza


Buhlebezwe Siwani's project ulwela amaza (2024), which consists of a live performance, a video and a video installation, is constructed from a deeply empathetic choreography that takes the viewer along various locations in Amsterdam, Middelburg and the waters bordering both cities. The work touches on both historical and more recent stories of Black communities in the Netherlands and asks how both cities are connected to this. There is room for both what is known and unknown about the history of Black life and examples of erased parts of this history.



The film emphasizes portraiture and frames the six performers as time-traveling inhabitants of multiple eras and dimensions. The individual videos can be read as appeals from people who were involuntarily brought to the Netherlands in the past and who, in the present, choose to stay here.



Moving within the legacies of slavery, colonial exploitation and cultural superiority, the performance is not blinded by 'riches' that were paid for from the proceeds of colonial trade and disturbs the ground of the current Museumplein. A place where the first 'colonial world exhibition' took place, which was used by the various European powers, among other things, to exhibit the original inhabitants of the areas they colonized.