In memory of protest’ was a demonstration of hundred years of protest in the city of Nijmegen. In preparation of ‘Conlang’, a serie of performances to explore the relationship between language and performance, we got intrigued by the rich history of demonstrations and activism in Nijmegen. In the archive of Nijmegen and on the internet we searched for pictures of demonstrations in the past and the stories behind these protests. After that we made exact copies of a selection of banners to get in the spirit of the people who once made these slogans. The oldest banner we copied was used in 1913 in a Catholic procession and the most recent one was used in a manifestation against G8 at 6 may 2007.

We eventualy used a big variety of slogans; “I’m wearing a short skirt because it is warm outside, not because i want to be watched” (1978, demonstration of feminists), “No human is illegal” (2004, against the deportation of asylemseekers in the Netherlands), “Alcohol destroys your body” (1913, against alcohol abuse among workers), “Get rid of the communists” (1956, against the Russian military invasion in Hungary), etc. It became a very diverse collection of banners. Alongside the performance we bundled our research in a publication.

At 31 may 2007 the demonstration of hundred years of protests took place. A group of 35 visitors who came to see our performance walked with us through the city centre of Nijmegen. They became the performers in the demonstration we prepared. We passed different places were protests took place in the past.

It was very crowded in the city centre so we had a lot of public. Some people on the street recognized the historical relevance of the demonstration, others were totally confused. It had a huge impact, people were standing still to read our signs or they came out of their houses to watched the demonstration passing by. They yelled at us, they started to laugh or they were getting irritated. We provoked all different kind of reactions.