The performance and installation works through the concepts of ghosts and haunting in combination with previous ideas about the relationship between Curaçao and the Netherlands with personal forgotten history. “Haunting lies precisely in its refusal to stop.” (Eve Tuck) I can’t stop re-shaping this question of the past, because it shapes my present. In a way, I’m the ghost that is haunting myself.

 

These texts are part of my ongoing research Soft Histories which moves through the semi-forgotten memory of myself, the place where I began, the people who are or are not here, the people I do not know yet or anymore, the known and unknown history and the various motherlands of my ancestors. Maybe I will find what I am looking for. Maybe not.

Jeanine van Berkel (1995) is a graphic designer, visual researcher and writer. She is interested in how her multi-ethnic body relates to bigger colonial structures, especially focusing on the relationship between Curaçao and the Netherlands. In her ongoing research and story through the semi-forgotten memory of herself and (un)known history of her various motherlands.