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Article
Ghetto Romanticism: Essentialist Notions of Black Culture and the Neoliberal Welfare State
Hip hop is a constant rhythm in the urban environment and a stereotypical indicator of urban life. It pours out of store fronts, cafes, mobile phones, apartments and cars. It's also a global cultural phenomenon that is linked to black identity politics and resistance (Gilroy, 1993). Hip hop allows individuals the capacity to perform their identities and influence others, expressing style and belonging in repetition and creating a variety of recognizable rhythms on the street. In this regard, hip hop is a phatic and poetic symbol of urban cool and authentic black culture. Because these rhythms are evident in the cultural practices and behaviors associated with a particular type of urban experience, they can be extracted and commoditized as signifiers of an ethnic enclave. In this paper, I combine Debord’s insights on the ethnic spectacle with the Frankfurt school’s critique of the cultural industry to describe the means through which hip hop is co-opted into neoliberal social and political agendas. Using Amsterdam’s Bijlmer as a case study, I will discuss the commodification of hip hop and black culture in the renewal of the city landscape in order to illustrate the ways in which institutions profit from essentialist notions of racial classification in the culture industry. -
Article
River Amstel reflecting the city. Archaeology of the North/South metro line
Between 2003 and 2009 several archaeological excavations have been organized during the construction of the new North/Southline metro in Amsterdam. The basic theme of the research was a new urban material history, based on the large quantity of finds (700.000) which were recovered from the former riverbed at Rokin and Damrak in the centre of the city where the metro was build. The river is analysed and interpreted as a new source of archaeological data on urban life from 1200 up till the present day. The archaeological heritage which was collected and created by the river provides through its spatial context new rhythmic perspectives on the material interpretation of city history. The meaning of this archaeological heritage will be discussed on the basis of different products of the project, such as the photo catalogue Stuff with 13.000 finds, the public display of 10.000 finds in two showcases in Station Rokin and the website Belowthesurface with 20.000 finds.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju40Eha0XD0&t=270s
Link to Below the Surface website: https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en
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Article
Project Impossible in Nothing, 2016-2018
In this project Thierry Oussou explores archeological methodology and speculative strategies in order to make a contemporary art work. Working with archeology and history students in Allada, Benin, he excavated a reproduction of a throne belonging to king Béhanzin. The monarch died in 1906 fighting the colonization of Benin. The original throne was then taken to France.Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5km_cZkC4Aw&t=237s
– Interview with Thierry Oussou, The Guardian, 2018, Watch the throne: why artist Thierry Oussou faked an archaeological dig
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/09/thierry-oussou-faked-archaeological-dig-african-art-colonial-looting