facade suspended, the first solo exhibition by Pieter Paul Pothoven at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, sheds light on RARA, the Revolutionary Anti-Racist Action. During the 1980s and 1990s, this resistance collective fought against racism, oppression and exploitation, the ongoing legacy of Dutch imperialist history.

The works on show are the first in a series in which Pothoven, in close consultation with RARA, both documents and elaborates on this unprecedented case of post-war resistance. Point of departure for this exhibition is Overtoom 274, a house in Amsterdam that played a pivotal role in the exposure of RARA. facade suspended focuses on a police raid on the premises that took place in 1988, as well as on the facade itself, which is not only linked to RARA, but also has its own distinctive connection to the Dutch colonial past.

On the occasion of facade suspended, a conversation between Yvette Mutumba (co-curator Berlin Biennial 2018 and editor-in-chief of the art magazine C&) and Pothoven will be published, as well as a text by historian and journalist Roeland Muskens (author of: On the right side, a biography of the Dutch anti-apartheidsmovement 1960-1990).

Essay

Click to read ‘Balancing Acts: a conversation between Pieter Paul Pothoven and Yvette Mutumba’.

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