#74 Labyrinth Within

Labyrinth Within is a site-specific installation by Razia Barsatie and Sarojini Lewis exploring Hindustani-Surinamese culture through themes of migration, intergenerational silence, and female identity. Their collaboration is rooted in a shared cultural background and a common desire to break the silences within their communities through artistic interventions. By intertwining their experiences, they create a powerful presentation that reflects on their childhoods: Lewis from a ‘non-traditional’ Hindustani-Surinamese perspective, and Barsatie from her Hindustani-Surinamese background in Suriname.

The artists examine what it means to grow up between cultures as descendants of contract laborers, questioning how women find their voices within patriarchal structures and how family taboos can be broken. They draw inspiration from the form of the eye, with its round, oval shape, breaking through Western rectangular imaginings of the labyrinth to return to the concepts of Kala and Nazar. Kala evokes circular time, a return to roots where inner experience unfolds in fragments and layers rather than linear progression. Kālā speaks of time as endless cycles.Days, nights, seasons existing in duality yet dissolving into unity.

During the 45-minute performance, Lewis delivers spoken-word poetry as ritual acts involving repetition, while a voice recites verses about the sea. Barsatie paints with turmeric using a handmade mop of yellow kitchen cloths, moving within a circular artwork and embroidering texts onto curtains. Violinist Satyakam Mohkamsing provides musical accompaniment, positioning himself among the artworks.

The installation in the corridor, Ogri Eye, uses the evil eye symbol as a metaphor for hidden memories and collective trauma, referencing domestic objects, bus stops, and plantation sites as carriers of cultural memory. The performance transforms the exhibition space into a site of active memory-making and cultural reclamation, where the oval form of the eye becomes a vessel for shifting perceptions across spiritual horizons.

For this evening Edwin van Gelder designs a small artist book and Gabrielle Gordeau made ceramic sculptures in correspondence to the space.

Free entrance with ticket / Gratis toegang met ticket
October 2, 18:30 – 20:30
Location: Central Space
Entrance: Paulus Potterstraat 13, Amsterdam

18:30 – doors open
18:45 – performance