Johny Pitts – Afropean: Travels in Black Europe

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

For opening hours of the exhibition, please visit foam.nl

In Afropean writer and photographer journalist Johny Pitts (Sheffield, UK) examines the life of black communities, traveling  across Europe. In search of the “Afropean” identity he went across the continent traveling from London to Paris, via Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Rome, Marseille, Madrid and Lisbon sketching an underexposed  story about the continent in words and images.

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.

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.