RESEARCH RESIDENCY

FELIX MERITIS invited BEYOND WALLS for a research residency to research its colonial roots connected to this well-known building located in the middle of the Amsterdam Canal area. The city icon that was founded in 1777 opened its doors in 1788 as a society of entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, and philosophers. Built on ideals of the ‘Enlightenment’ Felix Meritis, meaning "Happy through Merit", was the cultural center for people like Napoleon, Brahms, and later Ramses Shaffy. A place where ideas and people thrived, though only accessible to white privileged men for a long time.

The colonial link was however never researched before, while Felix Meritis’ foundation is inherently entangled with European colonialism, slavery and unequal power relations.

How does this history of origin align with contemporary realities and the inclusive, open space Felix Meritis strives to be today? Which under-represented stories can (not) be found in archives, historical sources and other collections and places? How can we bring these stories to life and structurally embed this in Felix Meritis’ DNA?

With this challenge team BEYOND WALLS carried oud an exploratory research in the archives and developed a research-based advice for the embedding of the results into public-oriented formats. A long-term collaboration with Felix Meritis that will be continued.

As BEYOND WALLS we always combine research with visual storytelling and art. Inspired by the ‘critical fabulation’ method of Saidiya Hartman, artist Shishani created an amazing spoken word based on the research results. On our website a sneak peak. Full version soon online.