With shock and disbelief we have received the news that Raad voor Cultuur (Council for Culture) has advised the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to stop funding BAK, basis voor actuele kunst for the period 2025–2028.

After the advice issued by the Utrecht Advisory Committee to defund BAK, we are receiving an overwhelming amount of messages of support.

The “Usufructuaries of earth” focus on Prospections is a reader that undergirds the project as an usufructuary of knowledges, turning the research into a collective research and publishing resource.

This chapter, “Improvement,” from legal scholar Brenna Bhandar’s Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land, and Racial Regimes of Ownership (2018) is one of the readings for the Amman reading group convened by artist-led research group Bahaleen involving locally-invited artists and researchers, as part of Usufructuaries of earth chapter two reading groups and slow-growing reader.

Originally published in Kohl Journal, this interview is between Samanta Arango Orozco, a member of Grupo Semillas, and the artist Marwa Arsanios, who is co-convening with BAK, basis voor actuele kunst the multi-chaptered project Usufructuaries of earth until 2 June, 2024.