On the evening of Friday 7 July, artist Susan Kooi will host Ghita Skali’s Background Evening, where you’ll find all things tulip! Come by for tulip bites and drinks and get to know Ghita Skali’s practice from a different point of view.

The past months, we’ve been able to have a look at Ghita Skali’s exhibition, delving into a world of butt cleaners, bias, power relations and stereotypes. For this exhibition’s Background Evening, artist Susan Kooi hosts a night of all things tulip! Including bites and drinks, and even a currency exchange service based on them.

Did you know that tulip bulbs functioned as a currency in 1637? One could buy a canal house in Amsterdam with just one tulip bulb, during the so-called ‘tulipmania’: the first economic bubble. Their function as a currency, with its value just as unreliable as crypto currency today, was short-lived. Its value changed completely again in the Dutch Famine of 1945, when people ate old dry tulip bulbs. The bulbs went from currency to emergency food. Tulip bulbs are thus both a symbol for the unjust wealth the Netherlands gathered from colonialism, and of the poverty caused by WW2. (text by Susan Kooi)

For Ghita Skali’s Background Evening, Susan is hosting a spin-off of her exhibition with Masatoshi Noguchi at PuntWG in Amsterdam earlier this year. For the exhibition, the artists produced a limited amount of ceramic coins called ‘Tulpengulden’, which could be used to purchase food and drinks with.

At our Background Evening, you will find Susan’s bank with a currency exchange service, where you can get your own Tulpengulden. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the event, so keep an eye on the display screen to know when is the best moment to exchange your currency! With your Tulpengulden, you can buy tulip bitterballen and a tulip cocktail at our bar.

Join us on Friday 7 July from 19:00. Reserved butt cleaners will be available for pickup during the event!