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Jose Maria Sison (1939–2022)

It is with great sadness to learn that on 16 December 2022 Professor Jose Maria Sison passed away. Having lived in exile in Utrecht, Professor Sison taught at the first New World Academy in 2013, Towards a People’s Culture , which we convened together with artist Jonas Staal in 2013. Professor Sison’s learnings on solidarity, friendship, resilience, and joy of the world in spite of its many hardships and struggles, will continue resonate strongly. Rest in power.

Sometimes the heart yearns

For mangoes where there are apples,

For orchids where there are tulips,

For warmth, where it is cold,

For mountainous islands,

Where there is flatland . . .



. . . The well-purposed exile continues

To fight for his motherland

Against those who banished him,

The unwelcomed exploiters of his people,

And is certain that he is at home

In his own country and the world.


Jose Maria Sison, “Sometimes, the Heart Yearns for Mangoes,” 30 March 1994


In dialogue with Jose Maria Sison, Jonas Staal edited the first New World Academy reader: New World Academy Reader #1: Towards a People’s Culture (Utrecht: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, 2013). The reader can be accessed online here.

More in this edition
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18 May 2021
In solidarity with the Palestinian decolonization struggle and decolonization efforts everywhere

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht stands in solidarity with the Palestinian decolonization struggle and with decolonization efforts everywhere.

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14 December 2020
Practicing Tactical Solidarities II

This locally-focused second edition of Practicing Tactical Solidarities: A Roundtable on Mutual Aid, Emergency, and Continuous Care took place on 16 December 2020. It featured artists, organizers, and activists working in Utrecht, many of whom were at that time BAK Fellows.

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30 July 2020
Solidarity with La Colonie

La Colonie opened its doors on rue La Fayette, Paris on 17 October 2016 as a radically open space of discussion and exchange for diverse cultural and political communities.

2 July 2020
In Proximity: Wendelien van Oldenborgh

For this first session of "In Proximity," an ongoing series featured on Prospections, BAK’s Curator of Public Practice Rachael Rakes enters into a conversation with artist and BAK 2017/2018 Fellow Wendelien van Oldenborgh.

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29 May 2020
Practicing Tactical Solidarities

A videorecording of the online event Practicing Tactical Solidarities: A Roundtable on Mutual Aid, Emergency, and Continuous Care, livestreamed via Prospections on Wednesday 29 April 2020, 19–21 hrs.

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28 April 2020
Supports, Strikes, and Student Revolt: On Housing Struggles in the Netherlands

Interviewed and introduced by Irene Calabuch Mirón and Sanne Karssenberg (BAK, basis voor actuele kunst).

16 April 2020
Collective Economies, Alternative Flows

From: Trainings for the Not-Yet, an exhibition as a series of trainings for a future of being together otherwise, convened with a multitude of collaborators by Jeanne van Heeswijk and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (2019–2020)

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16 April 2020
On Solidarity Without the State:

From: New World Academy, an alternative learning platform for art and politics established by Jonas Staal and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst (2013–2016).

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15 April 2020
Feminism and the Politics of the Commons

From FORMER WEST: Art and the Contemporary After 1989, Maria Hlavajova and Simon Sheikh, eds. (Utrecht: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016), pp. 379-390.