Pehmee aka The Soft Collective bring Safer Spaces For Unhad Conversations to Amsterdam

May 24, 2023 | 2023, News

Pehmee aka The Soft Collective (Caroline Suinner and Meriam Trabelsi) are in in Amsterdam 24-26.5.2023. As a continuation of their Together Alone 2.0 workshops in London in 2021, they will bring Safer Spaces For Unhad Conversations to The Netherlands.

Creatives from marginalised positions and underrepresented cultures are invited to create an audiovisual piece based on various psychophysical experiences about the Unhad Conversations, for example during forced isolation, war, rise of the right wing and other crises. They will work with a step-by-step method that can be multiplied and used to amplify care in the future. During the summer the texts, soundtracks and video recordings created in the workshop will be edited and prepared to share with the public at the Together Again festival.

The project aims to create an international network of marginalised artists and a platform where these experiences can be displayed by the artists on their own terms.

“We are here to remember and to unpack the loss of the revolutionary dance floors where we used to write stories with bodies and movement, spaces where we felt seen and celebrated as equals and common. All this was taken from us by the pandemic and still our subcultures, collective spaces and peace continues to be endangered by the white supremacist movement. These were the only safe environments for some and The Soft Collective is adamant to focus on recreating and maintaining joy and feelings of utopist freedom in marginalised communities” shares Pehmee.

The Safer Spaces For Unhad Conversations workshop is implemented in cooperation with the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux as part of the project Together Again.

The Together Again festival, a one-day multidisciplinary contemporary arts festival, takes place in Helsinki on the 8th of September. Full programme to be announced later this summer.

 

Pehmee-kollektiivi / The Soft Collective

Marginalised bodies to the centerstage.

Pehmee-kollektiivi’s (Caroline Suinner and Meriam Trabelsi) mission is to create representation and space for marginalised bodies in the fields of media, art, fashion and culture. The collective has designed various spaces, events and concepts that are based on safer spaces guidelines.

Learn more on the Pehmee-kollektiivi (The Soft Collective) website.

Follow Pehmee on instagram.

 

Cover photo: Safer Spaces For Unhad Conversations London workshop results exhibited as part of Elastic Alliances at Hannaholmen (2022). Photo by Petri Summanen.

Participants selected for performing arts networking trip to Brussels, Ghent & Antwerp

Meet the participants joining our performing arts networking trip taking place 28 September to 2 October 2026.

Meet our new interns: Julianna Areva and Linda Lindström!

Meet our Communications Assistant and EDUFI intern, Julianna Areva, and our Programme Assistant and Svenska Kulturfonden intern, Linda Lindström.

Residency: Finnish Cultural Foundation x MORPHO 2027

Finnish & Finland-based visual artists, apply for MORPHO’s 5-month residency in Antwerp, Belgium supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Institute office closed for summer break: 18.7–16.8.2026

Our office will be closed from the 18th of July to the 16th of August. You can still email us, we’ll reply after we return. Happy summer!

Ella Prokkola selected for Zoöp Connections residency with Kunstfort Vijfhuizen

The residency takes place 15 September–13 October 2026 in Vijfhuizen as part of EUNIC Netherlands’ networked knowledge exchange programme.