Concept
Monique Duurvoort & Afra Jonker
Idea, storyline & design of the dance film — screenwriter, director, scenographer & choreographer
Monique Duurvoort
Idea for the dance film, theme, subject & arena — initiative & producer
Afra Jonker
Production
© Boa Producties 2024
Desta Deekman
as
(unknown, for she was human merchandise)
Extras
Cheyenne Alyssa
Hellen Bruining
Achi Chioma
Rex Clemensia
Harriët Duurvoort
River Duurvoort
Thaninga Fulani
Diana Geerdorf
Jaleesa Grot
Lesny Heikerk
Felicia Held
Gleone Kensenhuis
Nancy Kingswijk
Loraine Klaiber
Sheila Kléberg-Liesdek
Angela Klei
Renée de Laat
Morena Laurence
Evelien Leider
Junadry Leocaria
Melita Lont
Mirella Naarden-Liefeld
Joyjada Naarden-Liefeld
Amaya Nacer
Ilana Nacer
Eva Nijman van Zanten
Desiree Olbino
Malik Ottevanger
Jayden Seraus
Nigel Seraus
Nequre Stoard
Diedra Thompson
Vivian Thurnim
Ester Vroom
Yailah Vroom
Haydie Wells
Clifton Walker
Owen Wielingen
Robin van Zutphen
With special thanks to
Eva Nijman van Zanten
Mick van Rossum
Jet Christiaanse
Lidewij Verheggen
Owen Wielingen
Cinematography
Nicole Batteké
Production design, voice of the captain
Joep Vermeulen
VFX editing
Ömür Sönmez
Focus pulling
Marjoke Haagsma
Jib operating
Merlijn Dielemans
Guidance Desta Deekman, costume, hair and make-up
Samora Esajas
Production assistance
Joanne Schaap
Soundscape design
Victor Gama
Vocal guidance Prefuru
Percy Holland
Songwriter Mi Nene
Gleone Kensenhuis
Vocals
Morena Laurence
Diana Geerdorf
Melita Lont
Thaninga Fulani
Gleone Kensenhuis
Eros Macrooy
Haydie Wells
Script coaching
Ernie Tee
Storyboard artist
Hugo Bausch
Editing
Richelle van Loon
Color grading
Erik Wiedenhof
Reinier van Brummelen
Audio recording song Mi Nene and voice of the captain
Nino Koningsverdraag
Audio post-production
Franco van der Linde
Still photography
Jan Wich
Title design
Naomi Quartey
Title animation and credits
Martijn de Pooter
Extras guidance
Juanita Conrad
Damani Leidsman
Underwater scene guidance
Sjouke Brunia
Lighting assistance
Rens van der Meer
Runner, stand-in underwater scene
Jasmijn Atsma
Set construction
Melchior Verheezen
Kees van Starre
Jib operator assistance
Richard de Maare
Lucas Serné
Matties Dielemans
Catering
Mr. Schalkie
Filming locations
Allard Studio's
C.W.T.C. IJmond
With thanks to
Peter Sijnke
Karin van Paassen
Frank Zichem
Lisette Uitenwerf
Arjan van Amsterdam
Eric van der Palen
Lean Holthuizen
Gio Ling
Enver Liesdek
Fabrizio Brancacho Taico
Hugo Out
Fako Kluiving
Rough-cut screening location
Bijlmer Parktheater
Presentation locations
EBG Amsterdam-Stad en Flevoland
NoLimit
Research
Zeeuws Archief
Rehearsal spaces
Podium ZO!
Belcampo Loft
This film was made possible with support from the
Netherlands Film Fund
Cultuurfonds
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
NUT Amsterdam
A dance film about a true story from our shared history of slavery, screened inside a travelling sea container.
"The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do." — James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948–1985
Art Project Armazoen consists of two parts that are inseparably linked:
- A 20-minute dance film
- Screenings in a travelling sea container, nationally and internationally
Story of the dance film
A Black woman prepares to pay the highest price for self-determination: saying farewell forever to her loved ones in the run-up to her jump to freedom through death.
The story is based on a ship's log fragment from the slave ship Hof van Zeeland, part of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (the Zeeland counterpart to the WIC and VOC), which made its first slave voyage between 1732 and 1734, the triangular route between, among other places, Vlissingen, Angola and the Caribbean.
In this fragment, written by Captain Jan de Moor, the jumping overboard of five enslaved women — one of whom died — is described as an almost throwaway note.
These few seemingly inconspicuous sentences became the basis for Art Project Armazoen. It is an ode to these women and the countless others with them, symbolised by this one woman.
Based on these few lines, Monique Duurvoort designed the story for the dance film Armazoen. The build-up, the thought, the consideration preceding it, and the decision to actually make the jump overboard into freedom itself, has been portrayed through an authentic, abstract movement vocabulary.
Screening in a travelling container
Projection inside a sea container allows visitors to step inside and experience the dance film in this narrow, enclosed, dark space.
The trans-Atlantic route: international connection
An inseparable, essential and intrinsic part of Art Project Armazoen is the realisation of the trans-Atlantic route, through which Art Project Armazoen physically connects the four continents involved in our Dutch history of slavery, and through which historical voices are symbolically connected to our voices in the present.
In 2024, the sea container travelled from south to north along the Dutch coast: Middelburg, Rotterdam, IJmuiden, Den Helder, ending in Amsterdam.
In 2025 and 2026, Art Project Armazoen symbolically follows the original triangular voyage via Angola and Curaçao, travelling on from there to Suriname and the US. During the journey, Art Project Armazoen collects local stories of past and present relating to the theme, as well as visitors' experiences of encountering this project. Through images, text and materials, visitors at each location make these stories visible at the place where Art Project Armazoen is presented.
Vlag III
Travelling alongside Art Project Armazoen is an additional work (Vlag III), designed by Monique Duurvoort. It is a reinterpretation of the Dutch flag, inspired by an original VOC flag she encountered at one of the national locations. This flag carries historical data from this first slave voyage of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie. At the international and national locations of Art Project Armazoen, the flag collects visitors' signatures, physically and symbolically connecting our shared history.
Collaboration per location
The various locations, both national and international, are connected through the container route. At each location, we work together with a local partner organisation or artist who understands the cultural background and environment of the audience, and who selects the screening location.
The partner is organisationally and financially responsible for receiving the sea container, and for developing and implementing the local contextual programming.
Partners national route
- Middelburg
- Rotterdam
- IJmuiden
- Den Helder
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam
Partners international route
- Luanda, Angola
- Willemstad, Curaçao
- Paramaribo, Suriname
- New York, US
Motivation Monique Duurvoort
Who decides how our history is written? Who decides which stories from history are important enough to be told? Who decides who, what, and in what way history is recorded? Who and what we allow to become part of our historical archive. Something tangible that shapes a sometimes hard-to-grasp historical awareness, which in turn forms the basis of something as elusive as our collective social memory.
Take, for example, the story of De Rooswijk, a VOC ship for which the government made two million euros available in 2017 to carry out further research and partially raise it from the seabed. "Because we actually see that maritime heritage is hugely important for telling the story of who we are, where we come from, what our identity is, and the Rooswijk... yes... is a kind of time capsule that takes us back a couple of centuries." Words spoken by the then Minister of Education, Culture and Science, with which she emphasised the necessity and legitimacy of making the required (financial) resources available. A story considered beautiful, special and important enough to add to our cultural heritage.
The dance film Armazoen is an ode to these five enslaved women, represented by this one woman who died, and the millions alongside them. It is, perhaps naively, an attempt to make us aware of the absence of their voices in our collective memory. Our historical awareness, shaped by those who decide who and what is or isn't recorded in history, by whom and how. Armazoen is a surrealist imagining of the right to a voice and to self-determination — the choice to take one's fate into one's own hands.
It is an attempt to portray, in a sober yet poetic way, the course of a choice made 291 years ago on 8 March 1733 (today also International Women's Day!) by these five women. An ode, in an attempt to do justice to those who were written into our history as nothing more than anonymous merchandise, dismissively noted by Captain Jan de Moor. A reinterpretation from the perspective of these enslaved women, in an attempt to make the emotion behind this event tangible in a way that cannot be expressed in words.
'Armazoen' is the term used for human merchandise during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The dance film is based on a ship's log fragment from the ship Hof van Zeeland (part of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie, the Zeeland counterpart to the WIC and VOC), which made its first slave voyage between 1732 and 1734, the triangular route between, among other places, Vlissingen, Angola and the Caribbean. In this fragment, the jumping overboard of five enslaved women — one of whom died — is described as an almost throwaway note. Based on these few seemingly inconspicuous sentences, choreographer, screenwriter and director Monique Duurvoort designed the story of the dance film, as an ode to these women and the countless others with them, symbolised by this one woman.
The dance film Armazoen is screened inside a sea container, where visitors will experience the film in a narrow, enclosed and dark space.
Motivation Afra Jonker
The direct impetus for this project was being asked whether I would like to contribute to the event KUnSTPLAATS in Hoek van Holland, held on 4 and 5 May 2013. The theme was 'Freedom'. That same year, the nation also commemorated 150 years since the abolition of slavery. If millions of people were stripped of their freedom for centuries, it was during and as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. 'I want to do something with that as a universal theme, and with the sea' was the first thing that came to mind as I thought about my contribution. The sea as a symbol of freedom and its deprivation, of endlessness, of hidden and unknown suffering. And it had to become a short dance film that would travel along the coast of the Netherlands. But I also knew: as a white woman, this was not something I should do myself.
Between 1999 and 2016, I visited Suriname countless times, through friendship, work and love, in that order. The more often I went, the whiter I became. My view of (the history of) Dutch society changed completely during those years. And I am still regularly confronted with myself as part of 'White Supremacy'. It runs deep.
Searching for collaboration with a Black choreographer, I soon came across Monique Duurvoort. Meeting her was special. I approached her because I felt dance was, above all, the art discipline that could do justice to the theme of Freedom at my chosen location, the sea, and could give visual, moving expression to the emotions the sea evokes. Monique Duurvoort has a deep connection to the history of slavery. Her very first outline for her choreography moved me. In a deeply personal way, she gave voice to the absence of that part of history, which had been deliberately hidden by white dominance. It confused me. She confronts me with the difference between how I look at the sea and how she looks at the sea — what she is missing and I am not, yet of which I am still a part, of that same history; I play a role in the same story. She lets me experience how differently we stand within history, and therefore in the present, the difference between a Black and a white perspective.
It moves me again how she reacts when, in 2015, Peter Sijnke, historian at the Zeeuws Archief, draws our attention to the logbook fragment of the Zeeland slave ship Hof van Zeeland. She is struck by the cool, rational tone, so at odds with the meaning of the text. It won't let her go. A seemingly small drama — a leap of five women into the sea on the night of 8 to 9 March 1733 off the coast of Angola — yet it stands for centuries of oppression and mistreatment of enslaved people, which still reverberates in the (institutional) racism of today.
But her reaction is also shocking to me: why do I not feel anywhere near the intense emotion that it evokes in her? It genuinely took time for me to fully grasp what this text actually says and its entire context. Am I ashamed of that? Yes, certainly. But at the same time, I realise how incredibly important it is to hear, tell and pass on all these stories, again and again. After seeing this film, the sea will no longer feel the same to anyone. This story of the sea is confronting, but it also offers knowledge and insight that will bring us closer together. I want to share this experience with everyone.
With the dance film Armazoen, part of Art Project Armazoen, we chose to bring other stories to the surface. A seemingly unremarkable paragraph, written in the ship's log of Hof van Zeeland — a ship that sailed under the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (MCC) and made its very first slave voyage between the Netherlands, Angola and Curaçao between 1732 and 1734 — became the starting point for this film. As an offhand note about partially losing his merchandise, Captain Jan de Moor recorded the event of five enslaved women jumping overboard, one of whom died. His written word and interpretation of this event is the way it has been inscribed into our history.
Press
"Vijf vrouwen sprongen van een schip vol slaafgemaakten: in een afgesloten zeecontainer wordt hun verhaal nu verteld" (in Dutch), by Iwan Brave.
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