Queering and decolonising the museum: ‘In the Presence of Absence’ exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum

Abstract

This review engages with the recent ‘In the Presence of Absence’ exhibition (2020–2021), which was held at the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). By focusing on three artistic interventions included in the exhibition (Werker Collective’s ‘A Gestural History of the Young Worker’, Farida Sedoc’s ‘The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be’, and Jennifer Tee’s ‘Tampan Ship of Souls #2’ and ‘Tampan the Collected Bodies’), we aim to highlight ways of creatively queering and decolonizing artistic practices and spaces, including museums and conventional memory narratives.