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Panel Discussion

Fugitive Frequencies

With Shanice “Sissi” Djemesi, Meredith Joeroeja (online), Ronald Dijkman and Jimmy Carrillo

9 April 2026
16:00 — 17:15


Location: Theater Utrecht Main Hall
Tickets

Across histories of displacement and resistance, people forged spaces for life beyond the reach of state control. Faced with violence and dispossession, fugitives and self-organised settlements developed ways to survive in hidden or marginal territories. Dwellings rose in difficult landscapes. Communication travelled through coded sound, rhythm and signal. Knowledge moved quietly across distance and time. 

Maroons – formerly enslaved people who escaped colonial plantations and established autonomous settlements – developed what came to be known as marronage: a practice of building free life under conditions of pursuit. Escape involved more than departure. It required defensive architectures embedded in forest terrain, camouflage techniques, adaptive agriculture, acoustic signaling systems and carefully mapped routes of retreat and return. Forests, waterways and borderlands became strategic partners in this technological and spatial intelligence.

The ingenuity forged through such conditions continues to resonate today. Under pressure, new forms of coordination and communication emerge, enabling life to persist beyond formal recognition. Fugitive frequencies travel through sound and story, shaping collective existence in ways that remain difficult to contain. 

In this panel, Shanice “Sissi” Djemesi, Meredith Joeroeja, Ronald Dijkman and Jimmy Carrillo, bring distinct yet equally profound insights into existence shaped under conditions of movement, concealment and survival. Djemesi’s practice moves through performance and embodied research, attending to Maroon identity and the transmission of cultural knowledge through lived experience. Joeroeja, a multidisciplinary artist from Suriname, engages histories and contemporary expressions of Maroon and Indigenous Surinamese culture across media. Dijkman’s research into the Afaka script – a writing system developed within Maroon communities in Suriname – offers a vital perspective on alternative literacies and systems of communication. Carrillo, a Peruvian artist, writer and journalist, works across installation, sound and narrative to connect environmental change with memory and territorial experience in the Amazon. Together, their work speaks to how knowledge persists, travels and transforms beyond capture.

TICKET FOR THIS PROGRAMME

What else is on Thursday?

Check the timetable to visit more programmes with your Festival Pass (5-days) or Day Pass (1-day). With the passes you can also visit the festival exhibition Techno-Ancestrality at the IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] and BAK Basecamp.

Thursday day pass 5-day festival pass

For more information on the festival tickets please see here

 

Image: What Remains in the Air by Jimmy Carillo 

Jimmy Carrillo Shanice “Sissi” Djemesi Meredith Joeroeja Ronald Dijkman

Jimmy Carrillo

― Artist

Jimmy Carrillo is a Peruvian artist, writer, and journalist whose work explores the relationship between memory, territory, and technological systems. Working across installation, sound, and narrative media, he develops projects that translate environmental data, community knowledge, and historical archives into immersive sensory experiences. His practice often emerges from collaborations with Amazonian communities, examining how climate change and extractive economies reshape landscapes and collective memory. Carrillo’s work moves between artistic research, journalism, and speculative storytelling. In 2022 he received Peru’s National Graphic Narrative Award for the graphic novel 181. His projects have been developed through international residencies and interdisciplinary collaborations linking art, science, and environmental thought.

Shanice “Sissi” Djemesi

― Artist

At the age of fourteen, I emigrated to the Netherlands. Five years ago, I embarked on a deeply personal quest: what cultural significance does my Maroon background hold? For me, art is a way to heal, connect, and remember in this process. It is my way of saying, “I exist, my culture exists, my story matters.” I am not just an artist; I am a storyteller and a bridge-builder. What makes my work unique is that I position myself not only as an artist, but as a cultural bearer, storyteller, and researcher. From my background as a Maroon woman and artist, I explore how oral traditions, rituals, and crafts such as hair braiding, embroidering pangi (the traditional Maroon wrap), and tembé (woodcarving) function as forms of transmission. The absence of a written tradition within the Surinamese Maroon community, where knowledge was primarily passed down orally, makes these forms of heritage vulnerable to loss. These vulnerable forms of heritage take on new meaning in my work: I document them, give them a contemporary interpretation, and transform them into living works of art. Through textiles, hair sculptures, digital media, and visual art, I create spaces where past and present meet and forgotten stories are given a voice anew. Each work is a ritual of remembrance: a crossroads of knowledge, care, spirituality, and imagination. The body becomes an archive, a breathing memory that preserves tradition and shapes the future.

Meredith Joeroeja

― Artist

Meredith Joeroeja is a 27-year-old young artist of life. She expresses herself through fashion and visuals and enjoys nature, literature, art, and creation in every way. Meredith grew up in an artistic environment, with her mother as a seamstress and her sister as a painter. From childhood, she and her sister were guided by their mother to practice various sports and art forms, from karate to ballet, to making music, etc. Having experienced various things early in life, she became a visionary as a young adult. In April 2024, her costume design for the Dutch musical 'Boni' won the award for 'Best Costume' for musicals in the Netherlands. It was not her first award and this year she is also busy practicing her craft. “I did my first real shoot during Covid in 2021, after I made a new collection. That photo session went very well and I got good responses to it.” That her work was liked and found good enough became clear when she was asked that same year by the renowned magazine Vogue Nederland to do a campaign photograph. This magazine would do a special edition with the focus on Suriname in connection with Ketikoti.

Ronald Dijkman

― Artist

Ronald Dijkman, a resident of Amsterdam, has a deep interest in the cultural heritage of his community, the Okanisi Maroons of Suriname. His research focuses on the meaning and identity of the Afáka script for the Okanisi Maroon community, a little-known script used by his ancestors. For Ronald, this study has a personal dimension; he aims to provide insight into the cultural and symbolic value of this unique script for his community. Ronald's research took place in Amsterdam, where he conducted both desk and field research, including a survey and interviews, to obtain as complete a picture as possible. His goal is to explore and document the role of the Afáka script not only within the Okanisi community but also within broader societal contexts. His efforts contribute to the recognition and preservation of an important, yet often forgotten, piece of heritage.

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