Up in Arms

How the Dutch State promotes militarisation and how art workers can stand against this.

As Dutch defense spending reaches unprecedented highs and artistic freedom narrows under political pressure, the question is no longer whether artists can stay neutral, but whether neutrality itself sustains violence. While Europe is re-arming itself in the face of new geopolitical tensions, the Netherlands has quietly shifted billions from cultural and social budgets into defense spending. Artists, educators and cultural workers find themselves again among those most affected by austerity. Parts of the cultural sector have also become complicit, from state-funded cultural diplomacy to exhibitions and partnerships that sanitise or normalise militarisation. How are artists and institutions in the Dutch visual arts scene entangled with the expanding military-industrial logic? How do cultural programmes, exhibitions and the general visual arts discourse participate, knowingly or not, in ‘art-washing’ state militarism? What can history teach us from earlier moments when artists were mobilised in the service of the state? What tools of resistance still exist when refusal itself becomes criminalised?

In this programme Alina Lupu Post-conceptual artist en bestuurslid van Platform Beeldende Kunst

Following the publishing of the article ‘Up in Arms’, the three partners (Platform Beeldende Kunst, Alina Lupu and Jacobin NL) are organising a public event to bring the topic of artwashing and militarisation into the physical public realm. This event brings together writers, academics, artists and artist collectives in a bi-lingual (Dutch and English) symposium programme. Together, we explore the resurgence of artist initiatives that refuse to remain neutral, while examining the politics of cultural exchange and state budget cuts. We review and assess the different strategies of dialogue, interventions and refusals that the symposium participants have been engaged in. What have we achieved and what are the new frontlines we are facing?

The full list of contributors will be announced soon.

About the speakers

Alina Lupu is a Romanian-born, Dutch based writer and post-conceptual artist. She looks at the role that images and performative actions have when standing in solidarity through protest against capitalist hegemony and precarity. Here protest has a quite broad definition for her: from acts of civil disobedience, to petitions, debates, and building of counter-capitalist structures of care, creating a series of dialogues on alternatives to exploitative systems. She is also a board member of Platform BK.

About the organisers

Platform BK is a member-based and artist-led workers’ association. We research the role of art in society and take action for a better art policy. We represent, amplify, and mobilize self-employed artists, curators, designers, critics and other art workers in the visual arts field in the Netherlands, advocating for fair compensation and sustainable working conditions to help art workers thrive. From the perspective of art workers within cultural ecosystems, we contribute to public debates and societal developments. Platform BK opposes the precarisation of workers, erosion of public arts funding, dismantling of democracy, and marginalization within cultural ecosystems. We believe self-organization and solidarity are vital tools for fostering a healthier art climate and strengthening workers’ positioning in the arts. Platform BK conducts research into government and municipal policy, sets the agenda on urgent issues in the arts, and lobbies for the rights of art workers by engaging in dialogue with interest groups and politicians. We publish critical essays on current affairs within the visual arts in print and online, and organize debates, symposiums, workshops, and knowledge-sharing gatherings.

Jacobin Nederland is a magazine that is trying to radically change the Dutch media landscape since 2023 by expressing an unorthodox socialist view, both online and in print. In doing so, the magazine follows in the footsteps of its American and German counterparts, which can be considered the intellectual precursors of Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, and the recent electoral success of Die Linke. The magazine does not shy away from confronting power and capital, delivering honest, truthful and high-quality journalism and publishing reflections, opinion pieces, and essays on politics, theory, economics, and culture.