Armando Ello, Glenda Pattipeilohy, Jeremy Flohr, and Suzanne Rastovac. Photo: Armando Ello (2025).

Beyond Walls Collective


We are a collective of independent researchers, creatives, and community-engaged practitioners working at the intersection of heritage, art, and decolonial practice.

In 2025 kende het Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) Beyond Walls een structurele bijdrage toe die de ontwikkeling en uitvoer van eigen programmalijnen mede mogelijk maakt.

“We zien in Beyond Walls een belangrijke organisatie op het gebied van erfgoedonderzoek naar, voor en met diasporagemeenschappen verbonden met koloniale geschiedenissen. Het collectief belichaamt een jongere generatie en wil het eigen perspectief op erfgoed uitdragen in een niet-geïnstitutionaliseerde omgeving. We vinden dat Beyond Walls met zijn focus op het erfgoed en de geschiedenis van Nederland, Indonesië, de Molukken en Papua een duidelijke toevoeging is op het culturele aanbod. 

Het doel om onderzoek te doen en de dialoog op te zoeken zit in de kern van haar werk besloten. We vinden het sterk dat gemeenschappen in Nederland en daarbuiten met elkaar verbonden worden. Er worden onderwerpen aangekaart die doorwerken in het heden en zien dat ingewikkelde en/of zware onderwerpen toegankelijk en begrijpelijk worden gemaakt en dat er zo een dialoog kan ontstaan.”

— de afk adviescommissie

OUR STORY

Our collective journey began with a shared commitment to decolonial and community-centered work, uniting Glenda Pattipeilohy, Suzanne Rastovac, Armando Ello, and Jeremy Flohr between 2015 and 2020. As we collaborated in various capacities, a common drive emerged. We asked ourselves, why not join forces and move forward as an independent art and research collective?

We decided to team up and early 2020 Beyond Walls was born. Driven by shared core values and motivation we use our expertise and skills for positive change. Our aim is to contribute to a more complete and inclusive understanding of our colonial past. We view history not solely as historical events, but also as a living force shaping our societies today.

In our work we highlight the entanglement of colonial history, personal stories, and today’s world we live in. This involves the impact and afterlives of colonialism/coloniality and related unequal power structures, racism, and questions on identity and (un)belonging. We do this from exhibitions, documentaries, research and public programming to long term collaborations, advice and more.

As researchers, filmmakers and curators we create independently and in collaboration with a diversity of communities, scholars, artists, independent initiatives and partners like Makassar International Writers Festival, Rumata’ Artspace Makassar, Rotterdamse Academie voor Bouwkunst, The Black Archives, Amsterdam University, Het Rijksmuseum, Van Abbemuseum, TarraWarra Museum Melbourne, Museum Maluku, Gemeente Amsterdam, Mondriaan Fund, Framer Framed, TED, Erasmus Huis Jakarta, Gemeente Eindhoven, Het Wereldmuseum, Amerpodia and more.

Beyond Walls Foundation

As a collective we operate between institutional and informal heritage sites while simultaneously working towards establishing our own physical platform space for our exhibitions, work sessions and exchange programs.

To further develop Beyond Walls, create independently, and strengthen our organizational position Beyond Walls Foundation was formalized in 2022. Rocky Hehakaija, Dr. Tamara Soukotta and Amir Westhoff joined forces as board members. Dr. Sadiah Boonstra and Zippora Elders joined Beyond Walls as advisors.

Glenda Pattipeilohy, Jeremy Flohr, Armando Ello, and Suzanne Rastovac during their lecture performance in TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Australia (2023).

BEYOND WALLS COLLECTIVE

  • CO-FOUNDER BEYOND WALLS, EDUCATOR, COMMUNITY CONNECTOR, PROGRAM MAKER

    Glenda Pattipeilohy is an Eindhoven-based educator, curator, program-maker and co-founder of Beyond Walls with one mission: to raise collective awareness of untold stories and knowledge from (and thus empathy because of) these untold stories for our fellow humans. As a cultural professional she produces and curates in the cultural sector and beyond.

    Her background lies in the arts, fashion design and communications (BA). Glenda uses art, fashion design as a way to spark critical conversations on sustainability and identity with young people. She has worked on projects with a diverse array of designers, photographers and stylists throughout the Netherlands, New York and London and has participated in projects during Dutch Design Week. In 2019 she completed the summer school Art as Politics at BAK. In 2015 she graduated with a cross-media exhibition: The Forgettables. Her aim was to raise awareness about injustices that are still happening today in the pacific and West Papua. Glenda is active in education, talent development and empowerment projects for children and young adults. She previously worked for Fawaka Ondernemerschool.

    She tries to go back to the Moluccas every year to continue her sustainable empowerment project that she initiated with her friends of Moluccas Coastal Care in Maluku. One of the projects is the Mangrove reforestation project: Kaskombali mange2-project, (Give back the mangroves). This year they planted 1.000 mangrove trees to protect the coastline of Ambon, Maluku.

    She is also an educator at the Van Abbemuseum. #maribaikooo (Let’s be involved) is her motto.

  • CO-FOUNDER BEYOND WALLS, VISUAL STORYTELLER, FILM MAKER, AUDIO ENGINEER

    Jeremy Flohr is a Utrecht-born filmmaker and visual storyteller. Whether Jeremy produces film portraits, poetry films or documentaries, his work is at the intersection of colonial history, personal stories and social themes.

    ''Dutch coloniality has been deeply rooted in my family histories. The impact of colonialism for me, is that in my upbringing, language has never been part of transferring indigenous cultural norms and values. This resulted in a sense of displacement when it comes to expressing emotions in words. As a creative, I’m very close to my feelings. So to express feelings and emotions, I’m using film instead of words as a language to tell stories.''

    Intrigued by inspiring people and personal stories of marginalized groups; with his sensitive feel for storytelling and unique eye as a filmmaker, Jeremy keeps uncovering stories the world needs to know, needs to hear, or better yet, needs to see.

    In 2018 Jeremy worked with Nancy Jouwe en Babs Gons on Sporen van Slavernij, a film series on Dutch slavery. They travelled to different places in The Netherlands and highlighted histories and traces of slavery. His is work has been on display in museums exhibitions like Het Rijksmuseum and archives like the Amsterdam City Archive. For In 2021, Jeremy has been awarded for the best Poetryfilm at the Dutch Poetryfilm Festival. And in 2022 he won an award for the best Poetryfilm at the International Poetryfilm Festival Weimar. Jeremy has frequently been asked for workshops at universities like ArtEZ (University of the Arts). For the Dutch Poetryfilm Festival 2023, Jeremy is one of the Jury members.

  • CO-FOUNDER BEYOND WALLS, RESEARCHER, CURATOR, ADVISOR

    Suzanne Rastovac is a historian, researcher and (program) curator. Amsterdam-based, born and raised in Breda. She is co-founder of Beyond Walls. She collaborated with many different partners such as the World Museum in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Het Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Museum, National Committee 4 and 5 May, Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), National Archives, Erasmushuis Jakarta, University of Amsterdam, Van Abbemuseum and more. She also enjoys moderating programs on important topics like 25 Years after Srebrenica, by Read My World. Suzanne is currently advisor Talent development at the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.

    Her background lies in colonial history and International Relations (BA and MA) with a specialization in colonial and contemporary history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. She lived in Malaysia where she completed the minor postcolonial studies at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. In Ambon she worked on art projects and filmed a documentary on the role of poetry and arts in the reconciliation proces after the 1999-2002 conflict. Before starting independently she developed and curated public program series and cross-disciplinary projects centering topics on colonlalism, war, slavery, collective memory and representation like Gepeperd Verleden, Blind Spots and Huizen van Aankomst at the Indies Heritage Center. Additionally she was responsible for the concept development of inclusive & artistic programming of the annual National Commemoration Day 15th of August that contains of: Talks, public programming, pop-up exhibitions, interview series, artist reflections and social media campaigns.

    In 2022 she completed the Maria Lugones Decolonial Summer School. Centering theory and practice on decolonization and afterlives of European colonialism from a diversity of scholars from the Global South.

  • CO-FOUNDER BEYOND WALLS, PHOTOGRAPHER, VISUAL STORYTELLER, PUBLISHER, MARKETING STRATEGIST

    Armando Ello is a creative entrepreneur, photographer and filmmaker. His work focuses on photographing and documenting people with roots from the former Dutch colonies.

    Armando photographed six hundred thirteen people with roots in Indonesia for the Moesson (2005 - 2015) Hoezoindo and his own publications such as Twijfelindo (2015), Zwarte Huid Oranje Hart (2009) Antara Nusa (2017), Pusaka (2019) and Indoworldphotoproject (2020). He also produced films for TedxEducation and various Dutch music ensembles. Armando’s work featured on Dutch national television like the program From Jakarta to Rotterdam and National Geographic.

    As an entrepreneur, he develops bottom-up initiatives and finances his projects through crowdfunding that he facilitates himself. He is specialized in online marketing strategy and social media and founded his own self-publishing label. On this platform he publishes books such as the successful Twijfelindo and Indoworld photography project for which he traveled around the world and portrayed diaspora communities worldwide: from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Aruba to Sweden, the US, Canada and beyond. Armando sees photography and film as strong visual tools to exhibit and publish the stories for the purpose of educating a wider audience. His mission is to collect personal stories and link them to historical events.

BEYOND WALLS BOARD


  • BOARD DIRECTOR BEYOND WALLS FOUNDER FAVELA STREET, CONSULTANT

    Roxanne ‘Rocky’ Hehakaija is a well-known name within the international (street)soccer and founder of Favela Street. With the strength of streetsoccer Favela Street developes a new generation of rolmodels in different parts of the world, among them being active in Amsterdam, Curacao and Sudan. The projects of Favela Street are aimed at youngsters who deal with social exclusion.

    Rocky is also speaker and consultant on themes like diversity, inclusion, change management and mindset change.

    Rocky is boardmember of Beyond Walls because she believes in the strength of storytelling. In everything she does, she tries to create a platform for new narratives.

    “Beyond Walls is a collective which, with all its initiatives, shows that the world is a collection of beautiful stories that need to be shared to bring the world closer together.”

  • BOARD MEMBER BEYOND WALLS
, POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER & LECTURER

    Dr. Tamara Soukotta is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Radboud University. She is also a lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and visiting researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

    Tamara completed her PhD at the ISS in 2023. Her dissertation, titled “The Past in the Present: Segregation and relational peacebuilding in Ambon”, is a a decolonial investigation on (religious) segregation and peacebuilding processes in Ambon in relation to the 1999-2004 wars.

    She is interested in decolonial thinking/doing and other ways of knowing/being.

    Tamara joined Beyond Walls as board member because she believes it is important to contribute to discussions beyond academia and to co-cultivate knowledges with wider communities.

    Link to the public program Revolusi by Beyond Walls where Tamara spoke in the Rode Hoed.

  • TREASURER & SECRETARY BEYOND WALLS
, DATA ANALYST, ARABIST, TAX LAWYER

    Amir was born in the Netherlands in 1981 as son to a father of mixed European and Indonesian descent, and an Indonesian mother. He is interested in societal developments next to this work as data analyst/architect.

    Graduated as an arabist and tax lawyer Amir works in IT for about ten years now. In the role of analyst/architect he keeps an eye out for patterns. They occur in implementing an IT solution, but generally also in human behavior.

    Decolonization and cultural sensitivity resonates with him. According to Amir, art is capable of reaching someone when they are open to it and is ideally always there for anyone to seek out. As such, he gladly contributes to a society that changes through expressions of art.

BEYOND WALLS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

  • ADVISOR BEYOND WALLS, DIRECTOR PT CULTURE LAB CONSULTANCY

    Dr. Sadiah Boonstra is a Jakarta-based historian and curator with a broad cultural practice. Sadiah is Head of Collections & Curatorial Affairs of the Transition Team at the Indonesian Agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage.

    She is Director and Founder of CultureLab Consultancy Jakarta. Sadiah combines her work as a Historian and Curator with a research position at VU University Amsterdam while she is also Honorary Fellow at Melbourne University.

    Combining curation, public programming, and producing performing arts, Sadiah works to decolonize the history, heritage, and art of colonial and contemporary Indonesia.

    Sadiah is curator of Zico Albaiquni’s solo-show Tilem. Disruptive Liminalities (2022) and Constellations of Being (2022), a solo-show by Sinta Tantra. Previously Sadiah curated exhibitions a.o. at Framer Framed (Amsterdam), Galeri Nasional (Jakarta), Erasmus Huis (Jakarta), British Museum (London), and Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam). Previously Sadiah was also Asia Scholar at Melbourne University/Curator Public Programs at Asia TOPA, Senior Manager Programmes at National Gallery Singapore, and post-doctoral fellow at Royal Holloway University London/British Museum.

    Photo: Maarten Nauw

  • ADVISOR BEYOND WALLS, CHIEF CURATOR GROPIUS BAU, BERLIN

    Zippora Elders is a curator, art historian and writer born and raised in Nijmegen, educated in Amsterdam and various places over the globe, now working in Berlin.

    She is the chief curator (head curatorial department, mediation & outreach) of the international exhibition house Gropius Bau in Berlin. Previously she was director of Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen in the Netherlands, where she has since 2016 increased the visibility of this UNESCO heritage site as a thriving retreat for contemporary art and ecological exchange under the themes of Science Fiction and Enchantment, Healing, Fertility. In 2019 she also became co-curator of Sonsbeek 20-24: On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies. Formerly she was curator at Foam, museum for photography in Amsterdam. She studied Art History, Curatorial Practice and Museum Curatorship, with extracurricularly Public Administration and Philosophy.

    Zippora has been supervising, advising and teaching for various organizations in the cultural field, and was an editor and writer for magazines, catalogs and other publications. She was a member of the jury for the municipal art acquisitions of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2020) and the jury of De Appel curatorial programme (2021). In 2019-2020 she set up and artistically led The Performance Show for Art Rotterdam and was curator-at-large for Fondation Constant. She is also an advisor (Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Council for Culture and formerly Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Mondriaan Fonds) and (supervisory) board member (Hogeschool der Kunsten Den Haag, Kunsten ‘92, Hard//hoofd, FIBER, Rizoom) for organizations in the cultural sector, particularly in the field of crossover, nightlife and contemporary culture. She was a resident at ABA Berlin, Danish Arts Foundation in Copenhagen, EXPO Chicago, Kooshk Tehran, HOW Museum Shanghai and guest curator for Mahji residency (Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation).

    Zippora is co-author and editor of CONTRAST, CKV teaching method for vmbo/havo/vwo, with an interdisciplinary and more inclusive approach to high school art education in the Netherlands.

    Photo: Joseph Kadow