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2025
Tags: education
On June 13, 2025, Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht and the Center for Religion and Heritage of the University of Groningen organised a symposium to accompany the exhibition Between Heaven and War. Here, I presented The Revolt of Homo Ludens.
In this video lecture, I showed how 20th-century Dutch artists resisted capitalist society and the art it produced from the interwar period onwards. Through anarchy, play and collective creativity, artists' movements such as dada, CoBrA, the International Situationists, Provo and the RoXY formed the foreshadow of a new culture for a new society. The revolt of homo ludens—the uprising of the playing man—was to herald the downfall of capitalism, and with it the total freedom for humans to realise themselves.
In a multi-faceted day programme, researchers and artists discussed the art of the inter-war period, a period of great extremes. How do we see these strong contrasts reflected in the various art styles and ideological ideas? And how did visual art relate to (the rapidly changing) religious values and frameworks? There was also attention for the parallels with the present, in social developments as well as in contemporary art. Can contrasts and insights from the past help us see current events in a different light?
Speakers included: Prof. Dr. Kocku von Stuckrad (professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen), Maite Karssenberg (writer and historian), Anne Jesuina de Andrade (interdisciplinary artist), Gijs Altena (literary researcher), Catrien Schreuder (head of Collection and Exhibitions at Centraal Museum), Juha van 't Zelfde (artist and teacher) and Dr. Lieke Wijnia (head of Research & Collections at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam). Led by program maker, designer and artist Caspar van Gemund.