Symposium: Shapeshifters

'What is your name?' (2023) Illustration, courtesy of Mili Herrera and Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba. Drawings made by kids from Cuquila, Oaxaca and taken from the publication and colouring book 'What is your name?' (2023).

17 Oct 2025
11:00 - 18:00

As part of the exhibition Shapeshifters: On Wounds, Wonders and Transformation, Framer Framed is hosting a symposium on 17 October 2025. The day-long programme brings together participating artists, alongside researchers, museum directors, and cultural workers, to reflect on themes raised by the exhibition.

Discussions will address the ethical and cultural implications of collections built through colonial looting and exploitation, and how these legacies continue to shape histories of dispossession and cultural erasure today.

The symposium asks: how can we resist dominant paradigms while imagining new forms of ownership, value, and repair? Through sessions on decolonial reparation, institutional responsibility, community, and care, the event aims to create a platform for critical engagement and collective reflection.

Programme

10:30-11:00 – Walk-in & Welcoming Music by Samboleap Tol

11:00-11:15 – Welcome & Introduction by Josien Pieterse (Framer Framed) & Wayne Modest (Wereldmuseum Amsterdam)

11:15-11:30 – Performance by The Visionary Archaeology Workshop

11:30-13:00 – Panel: Decolonial Reparation

13:00-14:00 – Lunch Break

14:00-15:30 – Panel: Institutional Responsibility

15:30-16:00 – Break

16:00-17:30 – Panel: Conversations on Communities and Care

17:30-18:00 – Closing drinks with music by Samboleap Tol

Decolonial Reparation, 11:30-13:00

The main mechanism for reparation is seen as a negotiation between museums and other governmental bodies and communities for the return of cultural objects. Though there have been several instances of successful returns made possible by these inter-institutional collaborations, there have been criticisms of their shortcomings in addressing the wishes of affected communities, who are often left in the margins. The panel highlights the potentials for alternative strategies of reparation, and how to decolonise these processes by decentering institutional processes.

PRESENTERS
Mili Herrera & Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba
kosisochukwu nnebe
Samboleap Tol
in conversation with: Nuraini Juliastuti

Institutional Responsibility, 14:00-15:30

Museums have long been recognised as custodians of imperial legacies, eliciting sustained critique and repeated calls for their deconstruction. Attempts to address these entangled and often contested pasts have generated both significant critique and meaningful collaboration. This roundtable seeks to critically engage with this paradox, posing the question of what further strategies and frameworks might be developed to advance the transformative potential of museums in the present.

PRESENTERS
Laura Van Broekhoven
Nanette Snoep
Vincent van Velsen
in conversation with: Quinsy Gario

Conversations on Communities and Care, 16:00-17:30

In recent years, debates surrounding the restitution of cultural heritage taken during colonial periods have intensified, accompanied by a growing recognition of persistent social injustices in society. While scholars, academics, and museum professionals have led much of the discussion, artists have also played an important role in expanding and deepening the conversation around decoloniality, restitution, and reparative justice. This panel invites artists and researchers to reflect on community and care in relation to museological and archival research, preservation and presentation.

PRESENTERS
Wang Pei-Hsuan
Dicky Takndare
Quinsy Gario
in conversation with: Sadiah Boonstra

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