DichtLicht op het verleden / the Goudsmit family

17 December 2021 - 24 March 2022

DichtLicht op het verleden shares personal stories of Groningers about the impact of the slavery past in their (family) lives.

In the Tschumi Pavilion, meaningful words from poems by city poet Myron Hamming are displayed daily from sunset in the light artwork by Lambert Kamps. Four people from Groningen tell Myron Hamming about the influence of colonial history on their (family) lives. Inspired by their stories, he writes four poems. The poems alternate every two weeks.

Charles Goudsmit (1954): “In 1965 we came to the Netherlands from Indonesia. I was ten years old then. My father had cancer and was seriously ill; from Schiphol we went straight to the hospital, where he died three weeks later. From that moment on, my mother was all alone, with seven children. Only her eldest had stayed in Indonesia to get married. None of us could speak Dutch, not even my mother. I didn't really know anything about my father's history, because he never told me about it.

That's why I went back to Indonesia in 1990; to find out my family history, and to see if anyone knew anything about my grandmother. Once there, I discovered that she had adopted another foster daughter. I then visited her, and then I heard the whole story about how it all went.

“My great-grandfather probably came from Ghana. In colonial times, the Netherlands was a minority in Indonesia. To keep people in line, they needed soldiers. They were taken from everywhere, including Africa. That's how my great-grandfather came to Indonesia, and he became one of the black soldiers of the KNIL. They were also known as belanda hitam - 'black Dutchmen'.

My great-grandfather then married a Javanese woman. My grandmother Floor was born from that marriage. She met the Jewish Dutchman Salomon Goudsmit, with whom she had two sons, my father and my uncle. When Salomon became ill, my grandmother went with him to the Netherlands. He told his family that my grandmother is his housekeeper. After his death she returned to Indonesia.

“To my great surprise, my grandmother's foster daughter also had pictures of me as a child. I was so surprised and so happy when I saw that. Until then I couldn't even imagine where I came from. It was tangible for the first time.

“My family has always been on the road, looking for a safe place, and that search has usually not been voluntary. Again and again that question: how can I create a place for myself and for my loved ones? That does something to someone when you deprive them of their sense of home. Such a safe place is not just something literal. If you're the only person of color in a white organization, and someone calls you a "cuddly immigrant," everyone laughs. Like it's a joke. But it touches me precisely because it puts me in a place I don't want to be, which reduces me to something small. And if you translate that to my own family, then you come up with patterns of not being seen, of being made small, that have been repeated for 350 years. Our experiences are not separate from each other, but are shaped by exactly the same mechanism that says: black is not a human being.

“I have set myself the task that the system in which we operate must become transparent. I am very sensitive to injustice, find it very important to expose the patterns through which slavery and colonialism are reproduced. Because the same divide and rule system is still present in the Netherlands: you can now see it again in the allowance affair, and in Groningen also in a different way, namely around the earthquake problem. What I have tried with restaurant Xapoe in Assen, and now also with De Omhelzing here in Groningen, is to create my own place, so that I can give space to other people to find their place. Those perspectives that are always excluded must be given space and be involved.”

Text: Ruby de Vos

DichtLicht

DichtLicht by Lambert Kamps (1974) is an installation that “writes” words with lighting tubes. The lamps slowly slide in and out of closed tubes. Words from Myron Hamming's poems are depicted in this way. Lambert Kamps is an artist and designer in Groningen. He studied fashion and design before entering the art academy in Groningen in 1994. He presents his work in galleries, at trade fairs and during local events. The work is located at the interface of art, architecture and design.

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH MONUMENT SLAVERY HISTORY

DichtLicht op het verleden is the first public expression of a preliminary investigation into how visual art can make the shared history of our slavery past visible in public space. The research focuses specifically on a monument yet to be erected to commemorate Groningen's Trans-Atlantic and Asian slavery past, in a meaningful place in public space. Kunstpunt is carrying out this research on behalf of the Municipality of Groningen and in collaboration with organizations and individuals involved. Kunstpunt and Lambert Kamps have developed the art project DichtLicht on the past to contribute to the collective awareness of this subject.

With this new exhibition, Kunstpunt takes over from the Tschumipaviljoen foundation and curator Marinus de Vries, who have managed the pavilion since 1995.

DichtLicht op het verleden is in line with the cultural manifestation Bitterzoet Erfgoed. From February 18 to September 12, 2022, museums, heritage institutions, cultural and educational organizations from the city and province of Groningen will pay attention to the slavery past in Groningen and its impact on the present.