People’s Forum, Farida Sedoc’s first solo exhibition, explores the conditions for art as livelihood and as a vehicle for change. Sedoc starts from her own precarious experience as an artist to address new forms of collectivity. Amplifying past and current voices of diasporic and transnational communities, the exhibition reports on resistance and civil disobedience, and suggests tools for emancipation.

The punk, reggae, and hip-hop aesthetics in her work contrast the visual language of mainstream media. In People’s Forum, repurposing this visual research material echoes the spirit of the 80s and proposes alternative realities of the present. This not only forms the basis for addressing many urgent topics in the exhibition and in society today but also speaks about global power structures in relation to people’s social, cultural, and economic positions.

Next to a series of new works by Sedoc, People’s Forum will bring together a program offering alternative and accessible forms of artistic production and autonomy: an art market, how-to workshops, and Platform BK’s office-in-residence.

People’s Forum Weekender Art Market—a freely accessible weekend market taking place on 25-26 November and 2-3 December—is full of unexpected treasures, self-published magazines, records, clothing, art works, craft products, and local food and drinks, from local artists, designers, and makers.

Every Friday, the weekly How-To Workshop Programme experiments with alternative modes of economic self-sufficiency within the arts field and beyond, in collaboration with various Amsterdam creators and experts.

Platform BK’s Office-in-Residence offers insights into their work as an advocacy organisation for artists and cultural workers, aiming to mobilise independent art workers, and encouraging self-organisation and solidarity for a better art climate.

People’s Forum is generously supported by Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fund, Gieskes-Strijbis Fund and Oedipus Brewing.