TEC ART
SYMPOSIUM - DRUGS
When Wednesday 08-02
Time 20:00 – 22:00
Location WORM Rotterdam (Boomgaardsstraat 71)
To celebrate TEC ART’s tenth anniversary, the festival kicks off with a long-cherished wish of the organisation: a taboo-breaking scientific symposium around the controversial topic of drugs.
There are few teetotalers to be found in the history of art. We are not just talking about alcohol consumption. A good number of artists, in addition to liking a glass of vino, beer or gin, consumed other substances to numb or stimulate the mind. From opium, hashish and LSD to cocaine and MDMA, many drugs influenced the way artists lived and worked. This sometimes resulted in tragic stories, but it also produced much extraordinary, beautiful, or groundbreaking art.
DRUGS have influenced the development of our art and culture more positively than has been recognized to date. In opposition we find a particularly repressive drug policy, especially internationally. By pushing drug trafficking and drug use into illegality, a dangerous shadow economy has emerged that has a tight grip on both individual users and society as a whole.
More and more voices are calling for drugs to therefore be legalized like alcohol. In this episode of the TEC ART symposium, we provide a platform for a plea for legalization, but also show what is involved in the act of legalization. However, we begin with a history lesson discussing 100 years of drugs in art and design. Finally, it’s all about removing the oppressive view of drugs in art and culture.
SPEAKERS
Jos ten Berge, Machteld Busz, and Gjalt-Jorn Peters
speakers
Jos ten Berge, assistant professor at the Free University in Amsterdam, specializing in outsider art, primitivism, and visual art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Ten Berge received his doctorate on the history of drugs in art in his dissertation ‘From Opium to LSD’.
Machteld Busz, co-founder of the Poppi Drug Museum in Amsterdam and director of Stichting Mainline, an organization dedicated to the health and human rights of drug users.
Gjalt-Jorn Peters, researcher at the Open University, specializing in psychology and behavior change. Among other things, he wrote “Why legalization of XTC prevents health damage and casualties.
timetable
19:30 - 20:00
DOORS OPEN
20:00 - 20:15
OPENING TALK
Kees de Groot, Creative Director PLANETART
Josephine Bosma, Symposium curator and moderator
20:15 - 22:00
Jos ten Berge, assistant professor at the Free University in Amsterdam
Machteld Busz, co-founder of the Poppi Drug Museum in Amsterdam and director of Stichting Mainline
Gjalt-Jorn Peters, researcher at the Open University, specializing in psychology and behavior change