Framer Framed

27 Feb –
25 May 2025

Expositie: Past Disquiet

From 27 February to 25 May 2025, Framer Framed presents Past Disquiet – a documentary and archival exhibition based on over a decade-long research by curators Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti. The exhibition uncovers a scarcely documented, shared history of politically engaged artists and initiatives worldwide, revealing a counter-history of art practice and political mobilisation.

The seed of the research for the exhibition Past Disquiet is four forgotten ‘museums in solidarity’ or ‘museums in exile’: the International Art Exhibition for Palestine (Lebanon, 1978), Museum of Latin American Art in Solidarity with Nicaragua, The International Museum of the Resistance Salvador Allende, and Art Contre/Against Apartheid. These initiatives were intended as acts of solidarity, supporting the liberation struggles of the Palestinian people, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, rejecting the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa. Despite their significant scale and impact, the presented collections have largely been forgotten.

Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti traced these histories following threads from Beirut, Paris, Rome, Rabat, Baghdad, Tokyo, Venice, Santiago, Managua and Cape Town, back and forth, uncovering thousands of intersecting stories of visionaries who organised exhibitions, intervened in public spaces, and created a particular form of museum to incarnate their causes. The exhibition Past Disquiet brings these resurfaced stories to light through documents, photographs, pamphlets, press clippings, posters, interviews and videos that tell of a shared history of politically engaged artists and initiatives.

Following editions in Barcelona, Berlin, Santiago, Beirut, Cape Town and Paris, this iteration of Past Disquiet highlights the history of artistic solidarity within the Netherlands. It explores how international movements from the 1960s, such as the anti-apartheid, anti-Vietnam War, and Chilean resistance efforts, were met with local activism. Notable examples include the Dutch International Defense and Aid Fund, which supported anti-apartheid militants in South Africa. The exhibition highlights the dynamic and creative nature of these movements and how their archival traces are well-preserved in Dutch institutional collections.

Register here for the exhibition opening.

Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.