Framer Framed

27 Feb –
25 May 2025

Save the Date: 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 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 collections 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 collections have largely been forgotten.

Khouri and 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 new iteration, realised by Framer Framed in Amsterdam, also brings forth local stories of artistic solidarity.

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