Our events and publications
Follow the latest news about ARTIVES’ events and publications.
Call for Papers Restor(y)ing the Archive: Explorations of Storytelling as a Critical Praxis Special Collection of the Open Library of Humanities Journal (OLHJ)
Guest editors: Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues, Bram Ieven, Sanne Rotmeijer, Bareez Majid
The special collection “Restor(y)ing the archive” invites contributions in the form of academic articles and creative interventions that are suitable for a publishing format (e.g., photo essays, creative writing, visual arts) that reflect on how and in what form storytelling can recover lived experiences and significant practices that have been excluded from or could not be fully captured by institutional archives. We invite contributions in such fields as Cultural Studies, Film, Literary and Performance Studies, Cultural and Visual Anthropology, Archival Science, History, and Artistic Research that engage with case studies in the form of archival records from institutional, community-based or family archives, community stories emerging from what is and what is not archived, as well as artistic fictional and documentary narratives that creatively reflect on and (re-)imagine archival presences and absences.
The publication is a collaboration between the ARTIVES project and projects Re-presenting Europe, funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, grant number NWA.1389.20.076) and Preserving Memories, Bridging Gaps, funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation.
Expressions of interest by 30 September 2026 via the contact page using ‘Restor(y)in the archive’ as subject. Final submissions via the journal website by 28 February 2027. The full Call for Papers is available here.
Conference Urban mobilities: artistic and cultural engagements with migration histories and discourses
4-6 May 2026 Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa (room B112.C) in Lisbon and online
Collaboration between ARTIVES project and Standing Committee “Arts, Culture and Migration” (DIVCULT) from the International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE)
ARTIVES and DIVCULT invite for the conference that brings together scholars and artists to discuss how artistic and cultural practices engage with contemporary urban mobilities in societies that are shaped by historical and contemporary migrations. The programme includes:
- Keynote lectures by researcher and film curator Dr. Kitty Furtado on black cinema and the city and by cultural geographer Dr. Emmanuel Adu-Ampong on African guided walking tours in European cities.
- Roundtable with local artists: filmmaker, psychoanalyst and researcher Isabel Noronha; theatremaker Cátia Correia; poet, performer and researcher Raquel Lima; and musician, multimedia artist and performer Tristany Mundu.
- Screening of the prize-winning film “Fruto do Vosso Ventre” (2021) and Q&A with the filmmaker Fábio Silva
- Three panels on imagining/transforming/recentring the city.
Treasures Festival
29 November 2025 in LAB Grounds (’s-Gravendijkwal 58) in Rotterdam
Music, films and stories from Cabo Verde, Suriname, Curaçao and Brazil in Lab Grounds.
Treasures Festival showcases hidden treasures from Rotterdam
Rotterdam hosts this year a special festival. On Saturday 29 November 2029 Lab Grounds (’s-Gravendijkwal 58b, Rotterdam) turns into a lively meeting place full of music, films, workshops, and stories. That day, cultural heritage of four Rotterdam’s communities with roots in Cabo Verde, Suriname, Curaçao and Brazil can be seen, heard and felt. Entry is free.
Four cultures, one stage
The stories of these four communities are brought together in a versatile programme with podcasts, films, workshops, concerts and parades. The festival sheds light on four specially selected traditions: Batuku (Cabo Verde), Angisa (Suriname), Seú (Curaçao) and Capoeira (Brazil). Visitors can also walk by the stands, try snacks from different culinary traditions, and talk to Rotterdamers who share their culture and heritage.
Treasures which stay
The stories of these communities belong to Rotterdam. They are the soul of the city. With Treasures, we want not only to share these stories, but also to transmit them to the next generations. The festival stands for discovering and treasuring: cherishing what unites us and preserving what gives meaning.
“Stimulating people to be curious leads to more understanding and equality in society”, says Lena Évora, artistic director of Productiehuis SchoneKunsten and creative producer of Treasures.
Stories for the future
The festival is organized by Productiehuis Schone Kunsten in collaboration with the ARTIVES project. Stadsarchief Rotterdam also joined as a partner: during the festival the audio and video materials will be officially donated to the archive so that these stories can become a part of the city’s memory. After the festival, four podcasts explaining the history behind the participating communities and four films with personal stories of Rotterdammers who keep these traditions alive in the city will become publicly available in the Stadsarchief.
Film screening Luci (2024) and Q&A with the filmmaker Mathieu Wijdeven
19 May 2025 in Wijnhaven 3.60 (Turfmarkt 99) in the Hague
Luci is a short documentary about the Surinamese artist G.G.T Rustwijk (1862-1914) by Mateo Vega and Mathieu Wijdeven, Rustwijk’s great-grandson. Rustwijk, nicknamed Luci, was a playwriter, performer, and a critic of the Dutch colonial regime. The film explores Rustwijk’s legacy and memory in contemporary Suriname through site-specific installations, interviews, performances, and creative engagement with archival records. The debate with Mathieu Wijdeven, moderated by ARTIVES’ researcher Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues, addressed the potential of storytelling in reimagining (family) histories and drawing connections between the past, the present, and the future.
Seminar and workshop Keeping/Discarding: Critical Reflections on (Un)Archivability
16-17 January 2025 in PJ Veth 1.01 (Nonnensteeg 1-3) in Leiden
What do we keep? What do we discard? A story or an object becomes ‘archivable’ when it holds a meaning for an individual or a community, sparking an affective reaction that binds the past, the present, and draws a line into the future. However, this process is never neutral. As archives tell stories about the collective memory of people and places, they deal with the questions of who and what gets to be remembered or forgotten. Archives tell us as much about what they contain, and what they leave out. How can we map or identify what is discarded from archival work? How and in what terms do archival objects ‘qualify’ or ‘disqualify’ as archive-worthy?
“Keeping/Discarding: Critical Reflections on (Un)Archivability” seminar and workshop is a joint collaboration between the ARTIVES ERC project, Re/Presenting Europe NWA project, Preserving Memories, Bridging Gaps Alfred Landecker Foundation project and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA) and is hosted at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
Interview with ARTIVES’ Principal Investigator Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues in the Polish popular science magazine Forum Akademickie
7 January 2025 (online)
The Polish popular science magazine Forum Akademickie features an interview with ARTIVES’ PI Kamila Krakowska Rodrigues. The publication is part of the magazine's series dedicated to Polish outstanding female scientists. The conversation addresses Kamila's own migration experience from Poland to Portugal and then to the Netherlands, the potential and challenges in the collaboration between artists and academia, research on migration and diversity within the current political climate and how these experiences have shaped the set-up of ARTIVES.