Afropean: Travels in Black Europe

This exhibition takes place at Foam, Keizersgracht 609, Amsterdam.

This programme is part of the festival Forum on European Culture, 17 – 20 September in Amsterdam.

He traveled to Amsterdam to hear from The Black Archives about Hermina and Otto Huiswoud, fighters against colonialism and for black communism. He documented Cova Da Moura, the Cape Verdean Favela on the outskirts of Lisbon with its own underground economy and visited the Clichy Sous Bois district in Paris, where uprisings erupted in 2005 following the deaths of Bouna and Zyed, two boys who died after a chase hidden from the police.

Johny Pitts: “These scattered fragments of Afropean experience had formed a mosaic inside my mind ( … ) the Afropean reality was a bricolage of blackness and I’d experienced an Africa that was both in and of Europe.” – Afropean. Notes from Black Europe, p.380, London 2019

A selection of photos appeared in the book Afropean: Notes From Black Europe published by Penguin in 2019 for which Pitts was recently awarded the Jhalak Prize. Pitts is also the founder of the online platform Afropean.com.

In addition to the expo, we will organize a public programme on Friday, September 18, 2020, with the artist himself as we discuss his writing and the continuing legacy of ‘Afropean’ today, as part of the Forum on European Culture 2020.

This exhibition is created by Foam and Forum on European Culture, and is curated by Johny Pitts and Foam.
The exhibition takes place on the occasion of Forum on European Culture 2020.