Storytelling workshop
de Appel, Schipluidenlaan 12, Amsterdam
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Too?, a solo exhibition and social monument by artist and activist Patricia Kaersenhout, currently on view at De Appel. Launches an elaborately set table installation with 50 glass sculptures and embroidered textile works. The exhibition honours the lives of women of colour throughout history and mythology by naming and narrating the stories of 38 'heroines of resistance'.
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Too? departs from Judy Chicago’s now canonical artwork 'The Dinner Party' (1974-1979), an ode to women from antiquity until the present, and mainly consists of American and European heroines. Kaersenhout wants to challenge the horizon of (art) history by shining light on the underrepresented or neglected stories of 38 Black women and women of colour.
In this workshop, students will learn the tools for storytelling and get acquainted with the women seated at the table. We will discuss how history is written and why some stories are passed on, and some are not. Through various assignments, such as by telling the story of a personal heroine, the value of their own stories is emphasised. The workshop challenges traditional historiography and activates the storyteller within each of us.