Zapatista-Kurdish assembly
Zapatista-Kurdish assembly was a one-day discursive gathering amongst invited members of the Zapatista delegation visiting The Netherlands for the first time, to convene with representatives of the Kurdish Women’s Movement based in the country. The assembly was conceived in collaboration with artist Iliada Charambolous and art historian Sophie Mak-Shram, and held at the Museum as Parliament, Van Abbemuseum, on October 20, 2021.
The assembly was part of the research project From Revolutionary Friendship to Transnational Comradeship: On the Kurdish & the Zapatista Women Movements, which departed from solidarity letters exchanged between both movements since 2017. The project explored notions of infrastructures of friendship, solidarity and comradeship needed to support distinct claims for autonomy and the relationships between local and contextually specific movements. The public program included workshops, discussions and further encounters with local activist collectives.
Invited collectives, speakers and representatives included: women of the Zapatista delegation to Europe, Nilüfer Koç (spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress KNK), Vîyan Poch (Jîneolojî Centre) and Bêrîvan Lacin, Gezal Karabekir and Roştiyam Munzur from the Kurdish Women’s Movement in the Netherlands, Feministas en Holanda, The Wave Collective Eindhoven, Stichting SGV, Stichting Vredesburo (Eindhoven), Eindhoven Kan Het, Sandi Hilal, Fréderike Geerdink, Rolando Vazquez, iLiana Fokianiki, Rosalba Icasa, Circulo de Estudios Zapatistas de Hidalgo, Sarmad Magazine.
The assembly was supported by La Gira Holanda and co-produced with the kind support of the research department of Van Abbemuseum, the Museum as Parliament, the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava and Studio Jonas Staal. The Museum as Parliament, is a replica of the People’s Parliament built in Rojava (2015-2018) in collaboration with the people of Rojava and the art and activism studio Jonas Staal.
Paliacate memory workshop
For the introductory workshop the Mexican based collective Circulo de Estudios Zapatistas de Hidalgo, desgined for us a Paliacate (bandana) memory workshop. Every participant was given a booklet grapped in a red paliacate and a white chalk and was asked to write on the paliacate the name of a historical character who passed away, either fictional or real. Then they were asked to share with the person sitted next to them why they chose this character. Afterwards they share this with the group.They were asked to keep the paliacate with them during the day. All women representatives of the zapatista delegation wrote: “E.Z.L.N. a nombre de los compañeros caidos del 1994 (E.Z.L.N. on behalf of the fallen comrades of 1994)”.
In turn, the representatives of the Kurdish Women Movement wrote the names of their martyrs.The main idea of the workshop idea was to remember that the reasons we struggle is not only for ourselves but also for others. A collective struggle.
Booklet for informal note-taking
For the closed morning session, we designed a friendship booklet which was given to every participant. The booklet was part of our collective exploration of revolutionary friendship and translocal comradeship. The following text is part of the editorial note: “And as we’ve traced back to this soil, perhaps you too might leave seeds: do use this booklet to note-take, transcribe, doodle, dream. We’d love for this booklet to become one of your companions to our conversations today: a slower mode of thinking with, through, alongside”…
For the booklet we sought the informal advise of Sarmad Magazine and the Rotterdam based collective Fictional Dispacher.
Artist and co-initiator Iliada Charambolous produced a series of Corn paintings & Earthly vassels, inspired by the cosmology of both movements. The participants were served with popcorn at the end of the evening and each participant could take one with them. The popcorn activity was a reference to the Comando Palomitas (Popcorn command) which was constituted by Zapatista children during their visit to Europe.
