We open with a day of collective reading, dialogue, performance, and film screenings.
We gather to listen across different histories, experiences, and proximities. Through a collective reading with
Reading Counterpower Amsterdam, the launch of
Salah Akram’s Diary for Rafah, under genocide, a dialogue performance weaving together voices from Iran and the diaspora, and films by Dina Mimi, rooted in Palestine alongside a short film rooted in southern Iran, Chapter Zero opens up questions of how different positions shape what we can see, remember, carry forward, and imagine.
De Appel
Thursday 09.07.2026
14:00-20:00
Chapter Zero
Introduction. Situated Beings
14:00 Opening
14:30 - 16:30 Reading Counterpower Amsterdam
16:30 - 17:00 Break / Book Launch: Salah and the people of Qaza between Life and Death
17:00 - 17:45 Dialogue performance by Black Holes Archives, Ehsan Fardjadnia
17:45 - 18:00 Break
18:00 - 19:00 Film Screening: The MELANCHOLY OF THIS USELESS AFTERNOON Chapters I and II
19:00-20:00 Discussion with the filmmakers
De Appel
Entrance is free
FUNDRAISER LINK
or
HERE
If you cannot attend the event, but would like to donate, you can use the link above.
Reading Counterpower Amsterdam
Reading Counterpower is an initiative to gather and collectively learn from the
tools that revolutionary movements from all over the world have offered. It is
a space for collective learning through study and community building. By
learning from various anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and
anti-fascist movements, Reading Counterpower strives to strengthen
international solidarity.
Book Launch – Stories of Resilience: Salah and People of Gaza Between Life
and Death
A Diary by Salah Akram, Rafah under Genocide
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This is not just a book; it is a screaming, recorded on paper. I am Salah, a
young man who once dreamed of building a future, only to find myself living
through a genocide written by bombs, the absolute and terrifying algorithm of
destruction. This memoir is a testament to the fact that wars do not just
destroy buildings; they shatter the silent architecture of the soul. My story
begins in Rafah, a city that was once home to simple dreams of university
elevators, football matches, and late-night programming sessions, only to
become the epicenter of a historical tragedy.
A dialogue and archival performance between Ehsan Fardjadniya and Black
Holes Archives
Built from fragments of personal narratives, testimonies, messages, images, and
archival traces, this dialogue performance brings together voices from within
Iran and across the diaspora. It reflects on the long winter of 2026, a period
marked by war, disconnection, and uncertainty, and the afterlives of successive
crises. Through a conversation woven from multiple voices, the piece traces how
events are lived differently across distance: how news becomes experience, how
proximity shapes what can be known or said. Projected images, videos, and
archival materials accompany the dialogue, holding open a space where personal
and collective histories meet without resolving. The performance assembles
fragments, allowing different perspectives, contradictions, and unfinished
stories to remain in conversation with one another.
THE MELANCHOLY OF THIS USELESS AFTERNOON Chapter I
dir. Dina Mimi | 2022 | PS, NL | 12’ | arabic and english w/ EN sub
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THE MELANCHOLY OF THIS USELESS AFTERNOON Chapter II
dir. Dina Mimi | 2022 | PS, NL | 12’ |
arabic and english w/ EN sub
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To close the day, we will screen Dina Mimi’s film THE MELANCHOLY OF THIS USELESS AFTERNOON Chapter I and II, followed by an online discussion with Dina Mimi. Chapter I of the film reflects on the role of the fugitive and the smuggler. It layers images of birdsong competitions from Suriname in the Netherlands, and revolutionary songs from Oman, Yemen, and Palestine, accompanied by a narrative contemplating movement, loss, separation, and revolutionary practice. Chapter II employs a clandestine style to document bird smuggling and the role the human body plays in this act. It is accompanied by a framed vest with organic material resembling what the birds are traditionally hidden within.
