De Balie

What if giving up isn’t a failure, but a form of resistance? Arnon Grunberg meets the British writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. Together they talk about letting go of control, ambition and certainty.Determination is often lauded as a virtue. But determined to do what? Adam Phillips and Arnon Grunberg explore how stepping away from expectations can bring freedom. In a world that prizes success and perseverance, can letting go open the door to new forms of autonomy and creativity — and, with it, challenge power?About: Adam Philips (1954) is a renowned psychoanalyst and essayist. He is the author of numerous books, including Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life, On Wanting to Change, and Attention Seeking. His works are known for bringing psychoanalysis into conversations about literature, art, and everyday life. In his latest book, On Giving Up, Phillips continues to explore the intricacies of human emotion and self-awareness.Arnon Grunberg meets is a series of conversations in De Balie in which Arnon Grunberg speaks with prominent thinkers, writers, artists, and politicians. Grunberg previously spoke with Marlene Dumas, Zadie Smith, Tomas Sedlacek, Ulrich Seidl, Deborah Feldman, and Damiaan Denys.This programme is a part of Forum on European Culture 2025.Programme maker: Ianthe MosselmanZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What role does art play in times of war? Is it a tool of resistance, a witness to destruction, or a space for imagining the future? War transforms the conditions of making, sharing, and experiencing art. It forces new responsibilities onto artists but also opens unexpected freedoms. In the midst of destruction, creative work becomes a form of survival, memory, and resistance.Throughout history, war has shaped and been shaped by art. In moments of violence and turmoil, artists confront devastation, mourn loss, challenge dominant narratives, and preserve fragments of threatened cultures. Their work raises urgent questions – can art intervene in the course of war? Does it document reality or create its own truths? And how does conflict alter the very language and purpose of artistic creation?This conversation will bring together artists from different cultural backgrounds sharing their experiences and perspectives.About the speakersTetyana Ogarkova (1979) is a Ukrainian writer, journalist, and essayist whose work focuses on themes of memory, cultural resistance, and the impact of conflict on societies. She has written extensively on the intersections of violence, politics, and art, with a particular interest in the role of creative expression during times of crisis.Anton Varga is part of the Ukrainian artists’ collective Open Group, known for their exploration of displacement, memory, and the social consequences of war. In 2024, they represented Poland at the 60th Venice Biennale with Repeat After Me II, an installation that engaged audiences in reflecting on the sounds of war. For this conversation Anton Varga will join.Elma Čavčić, a Bosnian-born artist, explores war, memory, and inherited trauma through figurative painting. Her dreamlike yet unsettling works reflect stories absorbed in childhood—quiet but deeply felt. Using soft tones and layered symbolism, she creates a visual archive of collective memory, preserving what must not be forgotten across generations.Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Lebanon; lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam) is a visual artist whose practice spans installation, painting, sculpture, video, drawing, text, embroidery, and performative gestures. Her work delves into equality, while it adopts manners such as micro-history, to bear witness to the impact of conflict and displacement. Al Solh’s work is socially engaged while being political and poetically escapist simultaneously. Her practice utilizes oral documentation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and wordplay to explore themes of memory and loss. Motivated by acts of sharing and storytelling, change, and resistance, Al Solh strives to craft a sensory language that transcends nationality and creed.Moderator: Ianthe MosselmanThis programme is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Crimea has been a starting point of the Russian war against Ukraine. By dissecting the tumultuous history of Crimea, Cambridge-scholar Rory Finnin argues why returning Crimea to Ukrainian controle is the only path to a sustainable peace.The Russian war against Ukraine began in 2014 with the appearance of mysterious ‘little green men’ – masked, unmarked soldiers – who suddenly took over Crimea. Now, the Americans seem willing to simply give up Crimea in negotiations with Russia. But history shows us that a Russian Crimea has no future. The idea of a ‘Russian Crimea’ is a colonial phantasm enforced by decades of suppression and ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars.Renowned British scholar Rory Finnin, expert on Ukrainian history, shows how a peace deal that makes Crimea Russian territory would lay the foundation for a future of further military escalation from the Kremlin. To understand why that is, we need to understand the history, culture and geography of the contested peninsula. Together with Alim Aliev, a human rights activist and journalist who is the Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian Institute, and researcher, PhD and co-curator of the Past / Future / Art memory culture platform art curator Oksana Dovgopolova, Rory Finnin will tell the tumultuous story of Crimea.This programme is made in collaboration with Ukrainian Institute, Past / Future / Art, made possible by DutchCulture and is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.Programme maker: Merlijn GeurtsModerator: Mirthe FreseZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How to live through the age of collapse? Science writer and broadcaster Gaia Vince (Nomad Century, Adventures in the Anthropocene) explores how the climate crisis is uprooting us and reshaping our planet—fueling migration, food insecurity, and conflict over land and resources. Together with political scientist and writer Kiza Magendane.As the planet warms and swathes of land become uninhabitable, as fertile land disappears, food systems falter, millions are forced to move. In this era of cascading ecological and social shifts, Vince argues for radical rethinking: of how we grow food, how we share space, and how we treat people on the move.In Nomad Century, Vince argues that migration is not the crisis itself – but a rational, necessary response to it. She connects environmental collapse with the weaponization of essential resources, warning that without coordinated action, scarcity could deepen global divisions. In an era of rising authoritarianism, Europe’s apathy and hardened borders risk becoming tools of tyranny. Vince argues that surviving the climate crisis requires not just resilience, but radical cooperation across nations. With foresight and humane policy, she contends, this century of upheaval can become one of renewal.About Gaia Vince: Gaia Vince is an award-winning journalist and author focusing on climate, development, and migration. Her books, including Nomad Century and Adventures in the Anthropocene, have been internationally acclaimed for their clarity and urgency. Vince is a former editor of Nature and New Scientist and regularly contributes to The Guardian and the BBC.Moderator: Kees FoekemaThis programme is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How are the tech oligarchs shaping our democracies? In conversation with former EU-parliament member Marietje Schaake and journalist Ece Temelkuran.In his farewell speech, President Biden warned of a ‘tech-industrial complex’ and an ‘oligarchy of extreme wealth’ threatening democracy. His successor highlighted this very point by placing tech oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook in the front row during his inauguration speech.Once celebrated as visionary enterprises driving progress and innovation, tech companies have become questionable forces in our democracies. From data privacy scandals to monopolistic practices and spreading misinformation on a wide scale, Big Tech has undermined public trust while molding the very fabric of our democracies.Together with former EU-parliament member Marietje Schaake, author of The Tech Coup, and journalist Ece Temelkuran, author of How to Lose a Country, we investigate the position of tech companies in our democracies. How are the tech oligarchs shaping our democracies?About the speakers:Marietje Schaake (1978) is the director of international policy at the Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University. From 2009 to 2019, she was a member of the European Parliament for D66. In 2024, her book The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley was published.Ece Temelkuran (1973) is a journalist and writer. In 2012, she was fired from the Turkish newspaper she was working for at the time, for writing critically about the Erdogan government. In 2019, she published How to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship.Moderator: Rosalie DielesenThe Techdenkers series is supported by Adyen. This edition is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko engage in conversation about Ukraine’s past, present and future. With an introduction from Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov.‘The bad guys are winning’, Anne Applebaum wrote in an essay in The Atlantic in 2021. If the twentieth century was about the rise of liberal democracy, the twentieth-first sofar has been about the opposite. The fight for democracy is nowhere as pressing as in Ukraine. Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher and writer Volodymyr Yermolenko discuss Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for freedom, and the stakes for the future – not just for Ukraine, but also for democracy in Europe. About the speakers:Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the AGORA Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy. Volodymyr Yermolenko (1980) is a Ukrainian philosopher, writer, and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, a multimedia platform, and author of several books on Ukrainian identity and European philosophy. He is the current president of PEN Ukraine and he has been a powerful voice for Ukraine during the ongoing war, offering a nuanced understanding of the cultural and historical context behind the conflict.Programme maker: Ianthe MosselmanModerator: Yoeri AlbrechtThis programme is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brainwash Festival x De Balie x TivoliVredenburg - Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum dissects modern dictatorship. What threat do the growing autocracies pose?When thinking of a dictator, one often imagines a malicious villain – someone we know from an action movie. Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum challenges this image. In her latest book Autocracy, Inc., she describes how autocratic regimes are intertwined in intricate, international networks with the primary goal of self-enrichment. Autocrats are doing more business with each other than ever before, protecting each other and working together to destabilize the democratic order. What threat do these modern dictatorial networks pose?About the collaboration: This Brainwash Special with Anne Applebaum is a collaboration between De Balie, TivoliVredenburg, and Brainwash Festival, and is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.About Anne Applebaum: Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy.Moderator: Merlijn GeurtsZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How does movement, across borders and social class, shape one’s sense of belonging? A conversation with writers Tash Aw and Radna Fabias about social change, generational gaps and the legacy of colonialism.In his new book The South, Aw explores the radical political and societal changes that swept through Asia in the 1990s, as seen through the eyes of a Malaysian family. He delves into themes such as class, economic instability, and the search for (queer) identity. Aw captures the painful transformation of post-colonial societies, marked by the tension between tradition and modernity, and the conflict between personal desire and collective duty. How do cultural expectations shape the journey toward personal identity in a rapidly changing society?Tash Aw (1971) is a writer and essayist. He grew up in Malaysia, left for England in his teens to study law and is currently lives in Paris. He is the author of six books, including The Harmony Silk Factory (2005) and Five Star Billionaire (2013) which were longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and earned him international recognition. His works often examine themes such as colonialism, immigration, class dynamics and cultural displacement, offering nuanced portrayals of life in Southeast Asia and beyond. Translated into multiple languages, Aw’s texts established him as a vital significant voice in contemporary literature.Radna Fabias (1983) was born and raised in Curaçao. debuted as a poet with the poetry collection Habitus (2018) which won all major poetry awards in the Netherlands & Belgium, amongst which the Herman de Coninck prize and the Grote Poëzieprijs. Fabias’ style is characterized by a great variety, both in terms of content and style. According to Dutch Magazine De Groene, “Fabias dares to use every nook and cranny of poetry as an art form, the poems are short and lyrical, sometimes narrative and long, sometimes clear and accessible and sometimes hermetic and experimental.” Habitus has been translated into English, French, Spanish, Arabic and German. Fabias also translates poetry herself. She is the Dutch translator of both Warsan Shire and Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück.About Forum on European Culture: Who’s afraid of art? Now that tyrants are on the roll and more and more people in the West seem to be falling for the autocratic alternative, Forum on European Culture 2025 (June 25 – June 29) brings together international artists, writers, and thinkers to celebrate the subversive power of art and literature.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Een meerderheid van de Nederlanders – 58 procent – vindt dat we de plicht hebben om ‘echte vluchtelingen’ op te vangen. Maar die stemmen klinken minder luid in een gepolariseerd debat. Hoe ben je solidair, wanneer de politiek het laat afweten?Wereldwijd escaleren oorlogen steeds verder – zoals in Soedan, Gaza en de Democratische Republiek Congo – waardoor mensen gedwongen worden op de vlucht te slaan, als dat al lukt. Door ondermijning van de internationale rechtsorde lijken vrede en rechtvaardigheid verder uit zicht te raken, en wereldwijd bezuinigen overheden op internationale ontwikkelingsorganisaties. Dit alles zorgt ervoor dat er de komende jaren alleen maar meer vluchtelingen komen. Toch wordt het moeilijker, in plaats van makkelijker om asiel aan te vragen in Nederland en andere westerse landen.Wat moet er gebeuren nu de politieke steun voor humanitaire hulp wegvalt? En wat betekent het om solidair te zijn met mensen op de vlucht in een tijd van politieke verharding?In dit programma onderzoeken we wat mensen beweegt om op te staan voor onbekenden. Zijn we ook bereid om solidaire gevoelens om te zetten in daden, nu die solidariteit vanuit de politiek steeds verder te zoeken is? En hoe ver willen – of durven – we daarin te gaan?Wereldvluchtelingendag is een internationale dag die door de Verenigde Naties in het leven is geroepen om vluchtelingen over de hele wereld te eren. Het valt elk jaar op 20 juni en viert de kracht en moed van mensen die gedwongen zijn hun thuisland te ontvluchten om te ontsnappen aan conflicten of vervolging.In samenwerking met UNHCR Nederland.Programmamaker: Veronica BaasZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Nadia de Vries groeide op in dorpen in de IJmond en keek vanuit haar kinderkamer uit op de torens van de hoogovens. Deze dorpen en haar bewoners vormen het decor van haar nieuwe roman Overgave op commando. Programmamaker Katarina Schul gaat in gesprek met De Vries. Wat kenmerkt haar als schrijver? Wie zijn de personen waar ze over schrijft? En hoe ontworstel je je van de klassenverschillen?Nadia de Vries (Heemskerk 1991) is schrijver, dichter en cultuurwetenschapper. Haar debuutroman De bakvis (2022) stond op de longlist van de Libris Literatuur Prijs en de Boekenbon Literatuurprijs. Eerder schreef ze het autobiografische Kleinzeer (2019) en Engelstalige poëziebundels. In 2020 werd ze door NRC uitgroepen tot een van literaire talenten van dat jaar. In datzelfde jaar promoveerde ze aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam als cultuurwetenschapper.In deze wekelijkse talkshow van De Balie interviewen programmamakers de makers die hen inspireren. Van cabaretiers tot schrijvers en van theatermakers tot kunstenaars.Interview door programmamaker Katarina Schul. De podcast wordt geïntroduceerd door programmamaker Kees Foekema.Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.