The second edition of Off the Map in The Hague

The lines that are drawn on our maps and onto our world are not the only determinants to our sense of community or belonging. ‘To what community do you belong (nationality aside?)’, we asked our visitors. ‘I feel part of womenhood’, someone said, ‘I’m reminded of that every month’. Other communities our audience felt at home in: millenials, seniors, LGBTQI+, world improvers, the border crossing kind. We had twenty-somethings in the audience, Rotterdammers, Hagenezen, geographers, and even someone who had been taken to Off the Map for their birthday. Being in the presence of such an engaged audience, coming to Zaal 3 to be taken around the world without leaving their seats, we felt part of a community as well.

Slavuj kicked off the evening with the song ‘kru kru’. the sound of the crane, who can fly over any border that people have erected. The name Slavuj means nightingale in Serbocroatian and on this second edition of Off the Map in The Hague, thirteen members of the choir, conducted by Ivo Boswijk were present to take us to areas where borders never have been permanent entities, like the Black Sea and the Balkans. Who needs air travel when you can have the voices and sounds of these talented singers? Their songs in Bosnian, Georgian and Romani were performed in a heartfelt and passionate way and left an impression on the audience. To sing in a language that you weren’t brought up in is an inspiring way to cross divides and to open hearts.

Journalist Jorie Horsthuis took us to Kosovo, which declared itself independent from Serbia in 2008. She has visited the Balkans numerous times, always trying to find out how geopolitical turmoil impacts daily life, what it means to the people who live there. In the case of Kosovo: finding themselves in a new country without moving house. The othering is omnipresent but sometimes is also set aside, for example at night when neighbors from different ethnicities harvest together.

Many of the evenings organised by De Facto are about territories that want to split off from another country, but sometimes there is a genuine wish to merge, as graphic designer Floor Koomen showed us with her presentation about the flag of the United Koreans.

Dutch-Kurdish documentary filmmaker Reber Dosky was interviewed by Jorie Horsthuis. He has just returned from Kurdistan, where lots of things have changed since the end of Assads regime. Dosky has a deep love for the non-recognized country that finds itself in four countries in the Middle East. And although it would be nice to make an erotic film, Dosky finds himself documenting the history, present and future of the largest community (numbering forty million Kurds) without its own country in the world. Some of Dosky’s films can be found at NPO, such as Daughters of the Sun and Sidik and the Panther. In the film Meryem, he seeks proximity to his sister, who died in battle.

Of course there was also a quiz by researcher Suzanne Hendriks, featuring a border ceremony with some stare downs and high kicks, bridges on banknotes and the newest microstates. The winner took home cookies from dwarfstate San Marino. We are already looking forward to the next edition!

A big thank you to Jerney Hakkenberg for the photos, Stimuleringsfonds voor de Journalistiek for sponsoring us, and the people at HNT and Zaal 3. And of course to our audience, you’re the best!

Next event: October 8th, 2025 at Mimik, Deventer.