Author: Tessa Roberts-Smorenburg

Tessa Roberts-Smorenburg

Tessa Roberts-Smorenburg (1987) graduated as a master in Ethics of Care and Policy at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht (NL) in 2015. She currently holds the double position of ethical consultant, and policy advisor in the Centre on the Quality of Life and Survivorship, at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam (NL). This centre accommodates the physical/psychosocial, supportive and survivorship care for cancer patients. As a sociotherapist she worked in direct contact with patients in psychiatric clinics. Her previous experience at TAAK brought her in contact with visual artists and care institutions to whom she provided an ethics of care perspective during research and project development for the programme “Art & Care”.

Cure Park – Art practice as a model for reflection

Cure Park was an art manifestation that was held from 4 June to 16 July 2017 in the ‘Amsterdamse Bos’, or Amsterdam Forest. The theme ‘care’ – in the broadest sense of the word – was both highlighted and questioned. During this event, more than 30 artists, creators and thinkers joinend the public and healthcare professionals. The program consisted of an art route, experiments, interventions, workshops, lectures, performances and films. Webeditor Tessa Smorenburg interviewed curator Theo Tegelaers from TAAK and spoke to him about the potential and urgency of the art practice as a reflective model for the public domain. Continue reading Cure Park – Art practice as a model for reflection

Interview Kari Greenswag

Kari Greenswag (Los Angeles, USA) has finished her PhD at the department of Philosophy of the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2016. Her doctoral thesis is called “Globalizing the Ethics of Care: Policy, Transformation, and Judgment”. The burning issues she examines in her thesis are the increasing inequality in the world, the continued marginalization of women, and more broadly the growing crisis of care. Greenswag argues that the ethics of care should be considered an important lens through which to view complex international moral and political contexts. Continue reading Interview Kari Greenswag

Moonlight – Who decides who you are?

‘You decide who you are’, Juan tells the young Chiron in one scene. But I wonder, what will appear if I look closer? The film Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) won three Oscars – including the one for Best Film, a first for a film with a cast consisting entirely of people of color. On top of that fact, the film also deals with overt Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) themes, a controversial subject in conservative and predominantly white Hollywood. Moonlight tells the story of a young, homosexual Afro-American man who grows up in a poor neighbourhood of Miami, USA. Moreover it shows the complexity of finding one’s position in a masculine environment while having to hide your nature from the light of day. Continue reading Moonlight – Who decides who you are?

Dance, Embodiment and Education

In April, webteam member Tessa Smorenburg interviewed Roma Koolen of dance collective MAN || CO and Joosje Slot, a student of Anthropology (University of Amsterdam), in Amsterdam. What follows is their discussion on the value of art and embodied practices, and ends with a criticism of our education system, which promotes exclusion. Continue reading Dance, Embodiment and Education