We Are Out Here: Toeslagen Affaire
December 2023We Are Out Here – is an ongoing series of public love declaration by Metro54 to street guerrilla poster culture that has produced (in the past decades) a particularly complex design aesthetics, typology, and vernacular across counter cultures. Since its inception in 2020, "We're Out Here" has seen three successful editions, each inviting four up-and-coming designers to craft a trio of posters in response to a given theme.
This fourth edition serves as an artistic response to the pressing issues surrounding social injustice, specifically focusing on the Dutch government's withdrawal from the social sphere, privatization of essential services, and the perpetuation of systemic racism in our society. Using the #toeslagenaffaire, as a recent (and ongoing) case/example, Lydienne Albertou as curator has invited four artists to make posters on the matter.
This project series involves thinking about and working on creating solidarity and supporting the agency of marginalized communities and neighbors in our society. We want to think through ways that cultural makers, in response to this critical issue, can develop this public artistic endeavor centered around the toeslagen affair as a way to provide a lifeline for artistic and social cohesion in diverse and divided cities and societies.
The creations from "We're Out Here" are now displayed for a month in the streets of Rotterdam, The Hague, and Amsterdam, respectively, allowing your art to reach a broad and diverse audience, sparking important conversations about the issues at hand.