WERKER Collective
A Moving History of the Young Worker
Cine-club / Screening and talk with Rogier Delfos, Marc Roig Blesa, and Noemi Biasetton.
Saturday October 10th, 5pm
A Moving History of the Young Worker
Public Workshops
Tuesday October 6th, 4pm
Tuesday October 6th, 4pm
Thursday October 8th, 4pm
Cine-club / Screening and talk with Rogier Delfos, Marc Roig Blesa, and Noemi Biasetton.
Saturday October 10th, 5pm
A Moving History of the Young Worker is a film installation examining the labor movement from a queer perspective, tracing depictions of the worker's body across political contexts. Begun in 2018 with a queer cine-club in Warsaw, inspired by the worker cine-club culture that emerged in Poland during the Soviet era, the film is structured by the 'five K's' that per anarchist Domela Nieuwenhuis oppress workers: Kerk (church), Koning (king), Kapitaal (capital), Kazerne (army) and Kroeg (pub).
At Ca'Buccari, WERKER expands this research with a focus on Italy, both observed through cinema and workers' movements. A public process of research and discussion, WERKER and Ca'Buccari will host a series of workshops and a concluding cine-club with artist talk.
WERKER operates at the intersection of labour, ecofeminism and LGBTQIA+ movements, advocating for an image critique of daily life. Founded by Marc Roig Blesa and Rogier Delfos in Amsterdam in 2009, the practice started with the release of ten issues of a publication called WERKER Magazine and has since then expanded to include performance, installation, video, sound and textile.
Taking inspiration from Der Vereinigung der Arbeiter-Fotografen (the association of worker photographers), a group of politicized photo-clubs that emerged in Germany in the 1920s, WERKER follows in the footsteps of the first socialist photography experiments in the USSR, which extended to Europe, the United States, and Japan. Their methods revolved around self-representation, image critique, self-publishing, collective authorship, and counter-archiving.
Under the name WERKER Collective they organise study groups, cine-clubs, self-publishing and counter-archive workshops, producing media from below and weaving an intersectional network of allies to reactivate oppressed histories and investigate worker solidarity. Rooted in the Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, WERKER has archived over 3000 documents, (photo)books, posters, pamphlets, movies, textiles and paraphernalia, to make publications produced by local and international social movements accessible in the city centre of Amsterdam.
This project has been realised with the kind support of Mondriaan Fonds.
At Ca'Buccari, WERKER expands this research with a focus on Italy, both observed through cinema and workers' movements. A public process of research and discussion, WERKER and Ca'Buccari will host a series of workshops and a concluding cine-club with artist talk.
WERKER operates at the intersection of labour, ecofeminism and LGBTQIA+ movements, advocating for an image critique of daily life. Founded by Marc Roig Blesa and Rogier Delfos in Amsterdam in 2009, the practice started with the release of ten issues of a publication called WERKER Magazine and has since then expanded to include performance, installation, video, sound and textile.
Taking inspiration from Der Vereinigung der Arbeiter-Fotografen (the association of worker photographers), a group of politicized photo-clubs that emerged in Germany in the 1920s, WERKER follows in the footsteps of the first socialist photography experiments in the USSR, which extended to Europe, the United States, and Japan. Their methods revolved around self-representation, image critique, self-publishing, collective authorship, and counter-archiving.
Under the name WERKER Collective they organise study groups, cine-clubs, self-publishing and counter-archive workshops, producing media from below and weaving an intersectional network of allies to reactivate oppressed histories and investigate worker solidarity. Rooted in the Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, WERKER has archived over 3000 documents, (photo)books, posters, pamphlets, movies, textiles and paraphernalia, to make publications produced by local and international social movements accessible in the city centre of Amsterdam.
This project has been realised with the kind support of Mondriaan Fonds.
A Moving History of the Young Worker. Installation view. Becoming Uncommon Subjects. Radius Center for Art and Ecology. Delft, 2025.
Photo Gunnar Meier
Photo Gunnar Meier
A Gestural History of the Young Worker, Installation view. In the framework of General Idea: Retrospective. Gropius Bau. Berlin, 2023.
Photo: Luca Girardini.
Photo: Luca Girardini.
A Moving History of the Young Worker. Installation view. Becoming Uncommon Subjects. Radius Center for Art and Ecology. Delft, 2025.
Photo Gunnar Meier
Photo Gunnar Meier