Jewher Ilham advocates for the end of Uyghur forced labour, carried out in camps like the one where her father is detained. How to encourage governments, companies and individuals to be aware of the origin of their products?

‘Did my imprisoned father, cousin or uncle make this shirt?’ This is a question Jewher Ilham often asks herself when holding a piece of clothing. Jewher Ilham saw her father for the last time on 2 February 2013 at Beijing International Airport. Right before they would take a flight to the United States. Ilham Tohti was arrested in 2014 and has since been sentenced to life in prison. Jewher hasn’t heard of her father since 2017 and doesn’t even know if he is still alive.

Almost one fifth of all cotton comes from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, often handpicked with forced labour by Uyghurs. Jewher Ilham advocates for the end of Uyghur labor exploitation and calls on international brands to remove all materials produced in Xinjiang from their supply chains.

In 2024, the EU passed a Forced Labour Regulaton that requires companies to prove that their products are free from forced labour. Member states need to incorporate this in their national legislation by 2027. Now, however, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which is a fundamental piece of legislation that will work in tandem with the forced labour ban, is under attack with the new omnibus proposal. How to motivate brands to end using materials from Xinjiang? And how to encourage governments and individuals to be aware of the origin of their products? 

About Jewher Ilham
Jewher Ilham (1995) is a Uyghur human rights activist based in the United States. She works for the Workers Rights Consortium and is a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. As the daughter of Ilham Tohti, an economist, writer and outspoken activist for the Uyghurs who was imprisoned for life, Jewher Ilham continues to carry the torch of her father’s advocacy.

Tachtig jaar geleden formuleerde filosoof Karl Popper de tolerantieparadox: een open samenleving kan intolerantie niet tolereren. Progressief-liberalen én (radicaal)rechtse politici beroepen zich vandaag de dag op Popper, maar trekken geheel verschillende conclusies over de betekenis van zijn woorden. Hoe komen we uit de paradox?

‘Onbeperkte tolerantie leidt uiteindelijk tot het verdwijnen van tolerantie. Als we niet bereid zijn om een tolerante samenleving te verdedigen tegen de aanval van intoleranten, dan zullen de toleranten vernietigd worden – en tolerantie met hen’, zo schreef de Oostenrijks-Britse filosoof Karl Popper in de nasleep van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in De open samenleving en haar vijanden (1945).

Tachtig jaar later, met radicaalrechts in veel westerse landen aan het roer, is het denken van Popper actueler dan ooit. Karl Popper is een icoon van het liberalisme. Maar ook Geert Wilders zegt door zijn denken geïnspireerd te zijn. In dit programma onderzoeken we Poppers tolerantieparadox: tegen welk soort onverdraagzaamheid moeten we ons weren en wanneer dient (veronderstelde) intolerantie slechts als excuus voor eigen onverdraagzaamheid? Oftewel: hoe geven we anno 2025 de open samenleving vorm?

‘Regulier als het kan, speciaal als het moet’, luidt de slogan van het speciaal onderwijs. Maar speciaal, dat moet steeds vaker. Het aantal leerlingen in het speciaal onderwijs stijgt al jaren. Ligt dat aan de ‘speciale leerlingen’ of is het onderwijs steeds slechter opgewassen tegen diversiteit in de klas?

De overheid streeft naar ‘inclusief onderwijs’ in 2035. Dat betekent dat kinderen met een ondersteuningsbehoefte niet meer gescheiden worden, maar meedoen in het reguliere onderwijs. Tegelijkertijd groeit het aantal kinderen in het speciaal onderwijs al jaren.

Als een leerling buiten de boot valt, wordt het probleem op dit moment – met een waaier aan diagnoses, van ADHD tot hoogbegaafdheid – al snel bij de leerling zelf gezocht. Wat is er voor nodig om het reguliere onderwijs toegankelijk te maken voor iedereen? En hoe realistisch is dat?

Indifference is the fuel of autocracy. What role does literature have in creating a culture of care? During the European Literature Night we examine the political potential of literature.

‘Art can serve many purposes and take on many forms. But one of the key characteristics of a work of art is that it stimulates the mind and the heart’ – writes Alicja Gescinska in her essay Empathy against Indifference: On Totalitarianism and Art as a Moral and Political Force. During the European Literature Night we examine the political potential of literature. Can we improve ourselves in the act of caring through caring art?

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

About The European Literature Night
The European Literature Night is organized by De Balie and EUNIC Netherlands, the network of European national institutes of culture and national bodies engaged in cultural activities. This year the Goethe Institut, the British Council, the Institut français, Polish Culture NL, the Embassy of Ukraine, the Embassy of Greece, the Embassy of Estonia, and Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond contribute to the event.

Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum dissects modern dictatorship. What threat do the growing autocracies pose?

When thinking of a dictator, one often imagines a malicious villain – someone we know from an action movie. Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum challenges this image. In her latest book Autocracy, Inc., she describes how autocratic regimes are intertwined in intricate, international networks with the primary goal of self-enrichment. Autocrats are doing more business with each other than ever before, protecting each other and working together to destabilize the democratic order. What threat do these modern dictatorial networks pose?

About the collaboration
This Brainwash Special with Anne Applebaum is a collaboration between De Balie, TivoliVredenburg, and Brainwash Festival, and is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.

About Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy.

Nino Haratischwili, renowned author of The Eighth Life (for Brilka) and director, invites you to take a seat at her supra at Forum on European Culture.

The Supra is a traditional Georgian feast table, playing a central role in social life. It is the place where meaningful conversations take place and therefore the perfect opening of the Forum on European Culture. Georgian food, wine, and polyphonic singing are essential elements of this tradition.

The supra has largely developed within a male, patriarchal tradition – although women have always been celebrated for their beauty and culinary skills. Haratischwili explores this tradition from a female perspective, together with you. Georgian musicians and actresses will join the table. They will eat, drink, sing, share stories of women. Take a seat and experience the supra with Nino Haratischwili.

The films of Serbian director Želimir Žilnik are as humanist as they are subversive. Stefan Malešević speaks with Želimir Žilnik about how cinema can present a form of resistance.
This program features an introduction by Bojan Fajfrić, and a special screening of Žilnik’s ground breaking short film Black Film (Crni Film, 1971, 17min).

Born in a concentration camp and raised in communist Yugoslavia, Želimir Žilnik remained dedicated to politically engaged cinema throughout his career. Žilnik was one of the pioneers of the Yugoslav Black Wave cinema; an influential underground film movement inspired by Italian neorealism and French New Wave. Žilnik’s films, characterized as ‘docu-fiction’, offer a deeply humane perspective on those at the margins of society, whether it be migrant workers in Berlin in the short film Iventur – Metzstrasse 11, (1975) or trans people in Belgrade in the taboo-breaking Yugoslav queer feature Marble Ass (1995).

Introduction to the conversation will be providedby filmmaker Bojan Fajfrić, who will reflect on how Žilnik inspired different generations of filmmakers, artists and activists on the Balkans and wider.

Film curator Stefan Malešević will engage in conversation with Žilnik about cinema as a form of resistance. How can cinema expose the mechanisms of control? What role does storytelling play in preserving historical memory and countering state propaganda? And in an era of rising authoritarianism, what can we learn from the artistic strategies of the past?

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

About Želimir Žilnik
Želimir Žilnik (1942) is a Serbian filmmaker and key figure of the Yugoslav Black Wave-movement. His award-winning work, including Early Works (Golden Bear Berlinale, 1969) and Kenedi Goes Back Home (2003), continues to influence new generations of filmmakers.

Bojan Fajfrić is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work investigates how personal memory intersects with collective history. Drawing from his experience growing up in Yugoslavia and living in the Netherlands, he focuses on overlooked events and marginal figures to explore how political time is embodied and remembered. His work has been exhibited and screened at Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), de Appel (Amsterdam), the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko engage in conversation about Ukraine’s past, present and future. With an introduction from Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov.

‘The bad guys are winning’, Anne Applebaum wrote in an essay in The Atlantic in 2021. If the twentieth century was about the rise of liberal democracy, the twentieth-first sofar has been about the opposite. The fight for democracy is nowhere as pressing as in Ukraine. Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher and writer Volodymyr Yermolenko discuss Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for freedom, and the stakes for the future – not just for Ukraine, but also for democracy in Europe. 

About the speakers
Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the AGORA Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy. 

Volodymyr Yermolenko (1980) is a Ukrainian philosopher, writer, and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, a multimedia platform, and author of several books on Ukrainian identity and European philosophy. He is the current president of PEN Ukraine and he has been a powerful voice for Ukraine during the ongoing war, offering a nuanced understanding of the cultural and historical context behind the conflict.

What does the future of Europe look like in an era of rising authoritarianism, renewed oligarchy, and democratic values under siege? During our Interview Marathon, the Forum on European Culture invites writers, artists and thinkers to reflect on the role of art in the fight against tyranny.

It may seem that art is powerless against weapons, yet history tells us otherwise. Autocrats and dictators fear artists and intellectuals — why else would they feel compelled to censor, imprison, and persecute them? It is the freedom of thought they seek to extinguish, the critical reflection they dread, and the plurality of voices they aim to silence. Art disrupts the singular narratives authoritarian leaders impose, making it a force of defiance.

 During this Interview Marathon, the Forum on European Culture gathers writers, artists, thinkers, and activists for conversations on resistance, identity, and the power of culture in confronting oppression. Can Europe uphold its democratic ideals in times of crisis? What role do artists and intellectuals play in the fight against tyranny?

During the interview marathon, guests take turns joining one after another for about an hour each. Visitors can walk in and out of the room and occasionally stretch their legs. The full marathon lasts from 5:00 PM to around 1:00 AM.

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

Programme