the woke award
The Woke Award at the IMPAKT Festival 2024 became a spectacle of disruption, critique, and chaos. Conceived by artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries to satirize the contradictions of wokeness, the award invited nominations reflecting the best and worst interpretations of the term. Yelena Myshko, under the banner of #redwomenarecoming, declared herself “woker than woke” for criticizing Stedelijk Amsterdam’s tokenistic inclusivity. Curators heightened tensions by pairing KIRAC’s Stefan Ruitenbeek, who nominated racist artist Ben Lunato, with wheelchair-bound activist Jeanette Chedda on the panel. Further complicating matters, artist Klaar van der Lippe nominated "sustainability," a term abstracted from her lived experience as an elderly woman. Dressed in red, Yelena and her collaborators brought energy to the event. Though unprepared, the group became the target of provocations by Himmelsbach, whose confrontational gestures spurred action. As “sustainability” was to be announced as the winner, one of #redwomenarecoming spontaneously seized the Woke Award and fled. IMPAKT erased #redwomenarecoming by calling the act “the work of a member of the public.” Himmelsbach demanded €1,000 from Yelena, threatening with police and bailiffs. Artist Joyce Overheul added that she would demand compensation if her work was stolen, assuming Yelena would do the same. Motivated by these charges, Yelena invoiced IMPAKT €10,641.11 for the collective labor and collateral damage of #redwomenarecoming. IMPAKT dismissed the invoices because they were not agreed upon in advance. While Michiel Lieuwma´s reporting revealed how curators Ine Gevers trivialized the chaos by comparing herself to Fellini, while Arjon Dunnewind claimed to support alternative voices. Yet, IMPAKT failed to compensate #redwomenarecoming, whose work is vital to dismantling systemic inequity in cultural institutions. Yelena passed the award to Avant-Garde Imam Salima El Musalima, who delivered it to The Unsafe House of Tarik Sadouma in Amsterdam. There, it awaited Himmelsbach—until Creeps from the Middle East, led by Sina Khani, took it for a ride in episode 5. The Woke Award now remains at The Unsafe House to be collected by Himmelsbach.
The intervention was documented by its participants and bystanders
Last two pictures were made by Maud Fernhout
