Niels Bekkema (1989, Groningen, the Netherlands) is an artist and writer. He has an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His artworks have been exhibited in the Netherlands, South Africa, Canada and Mexico. Alongside his practice, he works as teacher for graduating students at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, and as the assistant editor for the Polity of Literature.
Artists can stage the encounter of the state with the refugees it presumes to judge. In this searching personal essay, Niels Bekkema, a Dutch artist working with the Polity of Literature series, recalls some of the ways that art and justice intersect and shed light on one another.
This supplement to the Polity of Literature project presents the Dutch Werkinstructie that are the primary guideline for Dutch bureaucrats assessing the applications of queer asylum seekers.
When refugees arrive in Europe they must tell their stories to state bureaucrats who control their fate. But is the state capable of hearing what they have to say?