A Small collection of Innocuous Objects by Marit van der Meer

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects Jimini Hignett

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The Collection

Number 1 Tourist Attraction

93 Kata 97

Queenie

105 Sally 117 Solace 125 Olivia 131

Sky

141 Henry 147 Maria

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects Jimini Hignett A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

The Collection

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SNOW GLOBE (33) 2015 Snow-globe containing a woman seated in her

De Wallen covers a few blocks around the

red-lit window, with embossed lettering and

church Oude Kerk. In this area there are lot’s

the three X’s of the Amsterdam herald.

[sic] of alleys and about 300 small one-room

Packaged in cellophane box with text:

cabins. In these cabins prostitutes are offering

“#6 RED LIGHT DISTRICT ‘De Wallen’ is the

their services. The prostitutes seduce passers-by

biggest and best known red-light district in

from behind a window or glass door, usually

Amsterdam. This red-light district is located in

decorated by red lights.”

the oldest part of the Amsterdam city center.

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

FRIDGE MAGNET (1) 2015 The woman on this magnet is smiling and kicking her legs joyfully in the air in a pose somewhat reminiscent of the iconic images of can-can dancers in Parisian cabarets. The design thus links the idea of prostitution to a sense of harmless, jolly entertainment, with a traditional precedent.

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< FRIDGE MAGNET (16) 2015 By combining a prostituted woman with a wooden clog – a popular symbol of the Netherlands – prostitution can be presented as something equally quaint and old-fashioned. The relative sizes make it appear as though the woman is in a kind of clog boat, and this representation may jog nostalgic reminiscences innocence. FRIDGE MAGNET (8) 2015 Detailed Red Light District brothel with distinctive bell gable. In the foreground a pair of dogs can be seen copulating on the pavement, the implication being that having sex is as irrepressible an impulse for men as it is for animals, and that this is something entirely natural and

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of childhood games, generating an air of

uncontrollable. On an upper floor, a pole dancer and a lap dancer are performing for a room full of men. Women engaged to work as ‘erotic’ dancers’ report being under great pressure to provide sexual services, particularly as, rather than being receiving a wage for their dancing, they are frequently expected to pay a fee in order to work in the club, on the assumption that their income (and the fee) will be earned from ‘tips’ for sex.

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FRIDGE MAGNET (9) 2015

> FRIDGE MAGNET (4) 2015

‘Sex Shop’ magnet. Two of the prostituted

Shows a group of four women, suggesting a

women are portrayed passively waiting for

camaraderie that is in fact absent between

clients on a red sofa indoors. In reality, women

women prostituted in Amsterdam’s Red Light

need to actively hustle for sex buyers as, at the

District, where the reality is that restrictive

going basic rate of € 30,-, they need to allow

window space, competition for customers, often

themselves to be fucked by a large number of

combined with strict orders from their pimps

men even just to pay the rent of windows and

not to talk with other women, ensures a lack of

cabins, which on average cost € 150,- /

strength through solidarity. All the women

€ 160,- per evening shift.

portrayed are white, and predominantly blond.

This reflects the preponderance of women from Eastern Europe, who make up over 90% of the women in the windows. The woman in the pink bikini is cradling her slightly swollen belly with her arm – pregnancy can be a factor in prompting women to exit prostitution or to leave their traffickers, who frequently enforce abortions.

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FRIDGE MAGNET (85) 2018

FFRIDGE MAGNET (183) 2019

The women on this magnet appear completely

Magnet in the form of a giant clog decorated with

unclothed. Generally, the women on display in

a classic Dutch windmill, hearts and the word

windows wear at least a minimum of clothing.

‘Holland’, and with a woman, naked except for

These women’s splayed-lips and unnatural

her traditional Dutch lacy bonnet, sprawling

looking, improbably large breasts suggest that

across it, her bare buttocks provocatively raised.

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they had plastic surgery.

A significant number of women in prostitution

FRIDGE MAGNET (6) 2015

have undergone breast enlargement, often

The group in matching yellow tracksuits parading

forced by their pimps on the premise that they

past this brothel is a team of Chinese acrobats

will thus earn more money. The cost of the

performing a dragon dance. The Red Light

surgery then has to be paid back through

District overlaps Amsterdam’s Chinatown, the

the woman’s earnings. Some traffickers are

locus of historical links between prostitution and

known to take women to Belgium where the

drugs – Chinatown was the area where drugs, in

limit on the size of the implants is less restric-

particular opiates coming from Asia, were

tive. As the women appear to be almost

traditionally purchased. An addiction to these

identical, it could also be that they do not,

drugs has, for generations, created a desperation

in fact, represent real women but rather,

causing women to sell their bodies for sex.

inflatable plastic dolls.

It is worth noting that within the ‘hierarchy’ of prostituted women, those suffering from drug

FRIDGE MAGNET (172) 2019

addiction tend to be at the bottom end of the

On the gable of this magnet is a giant sized

scale, receiving both the lowest remuneration for

woman wearing a black bikini along with a

their services as well as the least sympathy from

traditional lacy bonnet such as is still worn by

society. They are seen as ‘guilty’ and complicit in

some women in various villages to this day.

their own exploitation, and placed at the

The woman is portrayed with particularly large

opposite end of the scale to ‘innocent’ victims

hands, which may indicate a background in farm

– those trafficked into prostitution through

work beyond the boundaries of the city. In the

emotional or physical force. A large number of

past, a significant number of the women who

women who may not have been drug users prior

ended up in prostitution had come from the

to entry into prostitution, become dependent on

countryside to Amsterdam, where they were left

the use of painkillers or other drugs, taken in

without the support of family or parish members

order to cope with the mental and physical

to help them in times of hardship.

trauma caused by the work.2

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FRIDGE MAGNET (13) 2015 This ‘Sex Shop’ magnet is decorated with coloured tulips growing outside. Tulips are a main tourist attraction in the Netherlands and provide significant revenue, as does the prostitution industry. Exact figures are difficult to ascertain but the figure quoted most frequently is that 5% of the GNP of the Netherlands comes from the sex industry (this includes related income such as sex-tourists’ use of taxi services and hotels). This would appear to be a greater amount than the profits generated by the drug trade, and superseded only by arms industry revenue.3 > FRIDGE MAGNET (5) 2015 The interesting persiflage of elements on this The How to go on Series

magnet bestows a sense of historical authenticity, but is incorrect in terms of actual location. The row of gables supposedly representing the Red Light District, includes both a windmill with nationalistic coloured blades and an historic monument, probably the Montelbaanstoren. (This tower, built in 1516, and once drawn by Rembrandt, was also briefly 16

occupied by a support charity for LGBT Muslims, though it is unlikely that the magnet intentionally references this.) The colours of the houses portrayed are reminiscent of children’s building blocks and this idea is reinforced by the inclusion of a giant-sized, bikini-clad woman whose stature reduces the buildings to playthings, inviting the suggestion that prostitution is as innocent as children’s play.

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

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< FRIDGE MAGNET (7) 2015 Nostalgic, architecturally detailed gable with cast iron wall ties, traditional double door, and stone plaque showing an elongated penis sporting feathered wings and what appears to be a red flying helmet with goggles. (In the period before literacy became commonplace, such stone plaques were used to indicate the trade of the occupants.) The middle window of this brothel magnet displays a flag with the three crosses of Amsterdam’s coat of arms. Initially the crosses may have symbolised the city’s three they came to be taken as standing for ‘valiant, steadfast, and compassionate’. Compassion seems to be sadly lacking toward women in prostitution, as much of Dutch society appears to be pragmatically complacent in its complicity with the sex industry, selectively focussing on the glossy surface of the business. This mirrors the way the Dutch government has conveniently turned a blind eye to the problems incurred

FRIDGE MAGNET (18) 2015

since the year 2000 when the Netherlands

This gable is one of very few in the collection

became the first European country to legalise

showing a dark-skinned woman present behind

brothel-keeping and pimping, both of which

a window. In the 1980s and ’90s there was a

were henceforth considered as ‘normal’

significant presence of women from Latin

professions. The fact that the United Nations

America, but since the collapse of the Soviet

Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has rated

block, and the consolidation of Hungarian and

the Netherlands as a “Country of destination:

Romanian mafias, a steady supply of women

Very High”, one of only 10 countries worldwide

with EU passports from the poorest and most

with this rating – has made this policy seem

heavily misogynistic societies of Eastern Europe

dubious at best.4

have replaced them.

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dangers – fire, floods and the plague – but later

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SNOW GLOBE (35) 2016 Snow globe with glitter snow – the shiny

“how some narratives are promoted while others

glamour of prostitution. Symbolically, snow

are repressed to represent a particular version of

globes are generally seen to represent happy

history.”20

memories, perhaps evoking childhood innocence. Erica Rand however, in her analysis of souvenirs, uses the description of a snow globe purchased in a gift shop on the site of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, to demonstrate

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SNOW GLOBE (31) 2015

Snow-globe with prostituted woman on red

from abusive backgrounds which may give rise to

cushion. On the base of this globe there is a relief

an undervaluing of their own bodies and a lack of

showing women in underwear and heels, prone,

self-esteem which leave them vulnerable to

in what appears to be an outdoor setting, on the

exploitation. In film and literature snow globes have

pavement in front of a brick wall â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a stark

also been used as metaphors to evoke dark, sinister

reminder of the rape fantasies that are encour-

events. Best known is probably the 1941 film,

aged by the porn industry, and the statistics

Citizen Kane, where a snow globe shatters when it

showing that many prostituted women come

slips from the hand of the dying protagonist.

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SNOW GLOBE (32) 2015

This snow-globe appropriates typical Dutch

has leaked out. Perhaps the little Dutch boy

figurines portraying a boy and girl in traditional

should have concentrated on keeping his finger

costume with wooden shoes, leaning forward to

in the dyke instead of going to visit the Red Light

kiss with their hands behind their backs. Here,

District.

although the couple still kiss and the boy still holds a bunch of flowers behind his back, the

> SNOW GLOBE (140) 2019

model of the girl in traditional costume with

This small snow globe contains three houses,

striped skirt and lacy headgear has been replaced

one which has unclothed women standing at the

by the iconic figure of a prostituted woman in

red-lit windows. Behind the houses, up against

black underwear and high heels. Appropriating

the rear wall, a man, his trousers around his

the conventional image in this way sends the

ankles, is having sex with a red-haired woman.

message that prostitution is traditional, and thus

In fact, almost all legalised prostitution in the

deserves to be preserved. In debates about the

Netherlands occurs indoors, with soliciting on the

issue, the former mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard

streets generally prohibited. In Nijmegen, one of

van der Laan, often emphasised this traditional

the few remaining officially recognised zones for

aspect and his intention to preserve it.

street prostitution is coupled with a so-called

Unfortunately all the water in this snow globe

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;afwerkloodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (translates roughly as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;finishing-up

purely pragmatic decision, as an article in the publication Tippelzone Revised concedes, “creating tolerance zones was initially purely a pragmatic decision, in order to control both prostitution and drug addiction, not an attempt to improve the lives of street prostitutes. For the public, decreased street violence and reduced visible drug dealing are the most important factors.”21 In Amsterdam, in order to reduce disturbance to the general public, street prostitution was banished to a special zone, far from the city centre, that opened in 1996 – the Theemsweg. It soon became a haven for traffickers and drug dealers and was almost exclusively populated by vulnerable drug-addicted women, mainly without official residency papers. In 2004 deputy mayor Rob Oudkerk, leader of the city’s biggest political of the women being prostituted there – women whom he would have known to be trafficked or shed’), an empty warehouse in which plywood

drug-addicted. It required extended debate before

partitions have been installed so that sex-buyers

Oudkerk was finally forced to step down.

can drive in with their cars to ‘finish up’. The

The extent of abuses occurring there led, in 2003,

signs outside, hung high on the walls presumably

to the Theemsweg site being closed by the city

to avoid derogatory graffiti, explain that, other

council, who stated that they “no longer want to

than police and health workers, entry is limited to

take direct and indirect responsibility for the inev-

“street prostitutes and their customers”. This is

itable facilitation of trafficking in women and

followed by instructions, “Drive at walking pace

exploitation.”22 This experience does not,

and follow the driving direction. Park your car in

however, seem to have deterred the council from

the finishing-off area and switch off the engine.

recently initiating, in the touristy, and therefore

Deposit waste in the bin and leave the finish-

economically lucrative, Red Light District, a

ing-off area clean. In the shed it is forbidden to:

project to purchase a series of brothels compris-

shelter or take a break; use drugs or alcohol; sell

ing 14 windows. The brothel project, which is

drugs or other goods; cause (noise) nuisance.”

supposedly run by sex workers themselves,

Tolerance zones for street prostitution (tip-

operates under the name ‘My Red Light’ and

pelzones) are frequently created distant from the

continues to profit from the ongoing support of

city centre. This is likely to be the result of a

the council.

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

party, was discovered to have been a regular user

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< ASH TRAY (43) 2016

ASHTRAY (80) 2019

Incorporating a model of an almost naked

‘Amsterdam City of Joy and Fun’

woman, prone, her hands positioned as if tied

…but for whom…?

behind her back, her legs spread-eagled, head tilted submissively back – this ashtray invites the violent gesture of stubbing out a cigarette into the woman’s crotch.

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METAL POSTCARD (145) 2019

BOX (90) 2018

This embossed tin postcard with red, white and

Plastic box decorated with reclining woman.

blue background,is illustrated with the picture of

Working all night and having to sleep during the day

a coyly posed, topless model in the style of

is another factor contributing to the social isolation

1950’s ‘saucy’ magazine illustrations, keeping

of women in prostitution, this makes them easier to

prostitution in the realm of something merely

manipulate and exploit. The black bra beneath the

naughty but harmless. Behind the woman is a

text ‘Amsterdam Redlight District’, looks curiously

contemporary photograph and the text, ‘World

like scary evil eyes – perhaps insinuating that to

Famous Red Light District Amsterdam’.

open the Pandora’s box of prostitution is to risk

The international fame of the area was espoused

possible addiction to sex buying.

in a promotional video, which for some years could 72

be viewed on the website of the Amsterdam City

> STATUETTE (36) 2016

Council, in which Eberhard van der Laan, then

One of a series of cast plastic teddy bear statuettes

mayor of Amsterdam, explains the council’s stance

depicting bears as prostituted women. This one

vis-à-vis prostitution and emphasises the

has an SM outfit which includes black thigh-length

importance of Amsterdam’s Red Light District as

boots, a whip, and a dildo. Portraying bears as

a tourist attraction, stating that he considers that

prostitutes suggests that the business is cuddly

prostitution should always be a part of the city.

and cosy and playful, a bit of harmless fun – going

“Amsterdam will always have a Red Light District,

to bed with a prostituted women is as innocent as

and it shall always be world famous.”

taking your childhood teddy to bed with you.

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Number 1 Tourist Attraction

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Jimini Hignett

The objects collected here were sold as tourist souvenirs. They were purchased in the Amsterdam Red Light District between 2015 and 2019, mainly from gift shops, tobacconists and kiosks. Souvenirs represent a distilled image of the country they portray. They depict icons of the ‘exotic’ location which is being visited by the tourist, and are bought as a nostalgic reminder or in order to share their experiences of that place with others. In Amsterdam, on the racks of postcards, holding a prominent place alongside the windmills, tulips, clogs, canals, cows and bicycles, is the Red Light District. This area, locally known as De Wallen, has been actively promoted by the city council as a major tourist attraction, and is visited annually by two-and-a-half million tourists. Prostitution is a worldwide phenomenon that earns huge sums of money selling access to (predominantly) women’s bodies for (almost exclusively male) sexual pleasure. Since the sexual revolution of the 1960/70’s, the sex-industry has needed to counteract a change in attitude toward (the) female (body’s) autonomy. A moral stance toward prostitution had become no longer tenable, and the centuries-old assumption of male privilege and entitlement was under fire. The idea my-own-body’ prostitute, perfectly fitted the sex-industry’s agenda, as they were able to make perversely clever use of the feminist principle of female autonomy whilst protecting their own interests. Of the collected souvenirs, almost half are fridge magnets. A fridge magnet can be seen as the epitome of banal domesticity, and the sale of these Red Light District magnets helps to instil the idea that paid sex is as innocuous as a kitchen sink, and, as the kitchen is traditionally female domain, these magnets imbue the sense that

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

of the self-reliant, strong, independent, ‘so-free-that-I-choose-to-sell-

prostitution is not only acceptable to the female population, but also homely and inoffensive. The collection also includes a number of snow globes. Such snow globes have been in existence as souvenirs since the early 19th century. They present a sanitised miniature, a ‘harmless’ version of reality, with the ‘inhabitants’ of the globe compressed, imprisoned, and unchanging. Several objects were purchased from the Prostitution Information Centre (PIC) – a prostitution-positive organisation which – as we can read on the website of the Amsterdam City Council, “played an important part

in the change of the Dutch laws regarding prostitution.” The PIC is also behind the placing of the statue of Belle, a small, bronze ‘Sexworker Monument’, on the Oudekerksplein. This statue portrays a prostituted woman standing in a door frame, her attitude that of a strong, selfsufficient, so-called independent sex worker. Tourists pose to have their photograph taken with her. The photographs throughout the second part of this book, show details of Belle Revisited, a life-sized wooden replica of that sculpture into whose body people have been invited to carve their initials and a heart – a symbolic representation of society’s complicity in the very real damage being done to women in prostitution. Zandpad Revisited, my video of people carving their initials into the sculpture was recorded at a contentious location – the planned site of the ‘New Zandpad’ in Utrecht. The old Zandpad was the location of a number of Red Light houseboats which were used for window prostitution. The city was forced to close the site in 2013, due to extreme violence and ongoing exploitation. The sex industry then campaigned to re-open the site, and consequently a patch of land has now been designated for the building of a series of new ‘windows’. Construction on the new site has, however, been delayed as the companies vying for the rights to ‘manage’ the new brothels failed to satisfy the demands of the Bibob laws pertaining to criminal activities

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such as exploitation. The sale of sex in the Netherlands has been legal, if strictly regulated, since 1811. Then, in the year 2000, the Dutch government introduced legislation to remove the prohibition on pimping and brothel-keeping. Cleverly packaged as part and parcel of a liberal, forward-thinking attitude toward sex in general, and the antipathy of prim moralising, this move corroborated the country’s dubious honour of being the torch-bearer for liberalised prostitution laws, and consolidated its 88

reputation as a centre for sex-tourism. The Dutch government, stubbornly blind to the ethically and socially disastrous results of this legislation, has, despite evidence to the contrary, insisted on emphasising the success of this approach, encouraging other countries to follow suit. In this, the government choses to side with the propaganda of the sex-industry rather than listen to other voices, such as that of former sex-trade worker Karina Schaapman, who later became an Amsterdam city councillor, “There are people who are really proud of the red light district as a tourist attraction. It’s supposed to be

such a wonderful, cheery place that shows just what a free city we are. But I think it’s a cesspit. There’s a lot of serious criminality. There’s a lot of exploitation of women, and a lot of social distress. That’s nothing to be proud of.”1 The drinking, gambling, loose-fisted, Dutch pimps, portrayed in the 1968 documentary, Rondom het Oudekerksplein [Around Oudekerksplein], have been replaced by organised groups of criminals from further afield, but in the methods used to entrap vulnerable girls – enticing them with gifts and affection then pressuring them to be prostituted, resorting to force if necessary – little has changed, other than the scale on which women are exploited. The information provided on the Amsterdam Council’s website displays the city’s pragmatically ‘down to earth’ attitude to ‘sex work’, reducing the business to a series of practical procedures, and has generally been active in promoting the ‘world famous’ Red Light District as something to be proud of. At the core of the prostitution industry, the painful, disturbing reality of a tenacious assumption of male entitlement, and of race and class privilege, is ongoing. In neighbouring Germany where similar brothels, warehouses with the capacity to cater to 1,000 sex buyers, has become commonplace. Some of these function as ‘flat-rate’ brothels, where for € 70,- customer can partake of a beer, a sausage and unlimited women. On the opening day of Pussy Club, a chain of such brothels, 1,700 men lined up to get in, and queues outside women’s rooms continued until closing time, by which point many of the women were collapsing from exhaustion and pain, suffering injuries and infections. Meanwhile, an increasing number of other European countries are now

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

legislation to the Netherlands is in place, the phenomenon of Mega-

acknowledging the extent of the violence and misery inherent in the sex trade, and are considering the ‘Swedish’ or ‘Nordic Model’ as a serious proposition for future legislation and policy. Within this alternative model, it is the buyers of sex who are criminalised, rather than those who find themselves in situations of prostitution. In the Netherlands however, the mainstream political parties continue to turn a blind eye and succumb to the manipulations of the sex-industry. The imagery presented on these souvenirs is part of the haze of subtle propaganda concerning prostitution that permeates our day-to-day

lives. It demonstrates the way that a particular image of prostitution is kept alive in society by exerting a subliminal influence which encourages the acceptation of prostitution as an inevitable, necessary, and even desirable, form of harmless ‘entertainment’. This message glosses over the damage wreaked by the blinkered acceptance of prostitution – a world where the maltreatment, abuse and subjugation of women, endures – and insidiously promotes and reinforces the superficial, one-sided view of the prostituted woman as a strong, willing and independent ‘happy hooker’, a view which enables society (and government) to ignore the very real pain and distress that goes on behind this smoke screen. By presenting these ‘innocuous objects’ as artefacts, described and displayed like an anthropological collection – similar to the supposedly ‘curious’ and ‘savage’ customs of historic ‘uncivilised’ societies that we are accustomed to seeing displayed in such a fashion – we could perhaps imagine them relegated to the past, and envisage a future in which have moved beyond an acceptance of this outmoded, barbaric ‘tradition’. Alongside the souvenirs, a number of testimonies have been included in this book – witness to the ongoing presence of this flourishing trade. The sources of these particular testimonies, though not anywhere near

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a comprehensive overview of the Dutch situation, are nonetheless varied. The majority are the product of a month spent as artist-inresidence for CBK Southeast in the Bijlmer neighbourhood of Amsterdam, during which time I met and was able to interview a number of survivors who had been trafficked into the sex industry in the Netherlands. Each of them began life in a West African country, and ended up in the unlicensed sector of the Dutch prostitution market. Their stories as they are reproduced in this book, though shortened, are taken verbatim from those interviews. Other 90

testimonies included here are taken from a series of court cases I followed over a lengthy period of time in the Amsterdam courthouse. These concern women from various countries in Eastern Europe, all of whom were exploited in the licensed sector, in the Red Light District of Amsterdam.2 One single testimony comes from a woman of Dutch origin. She talked to me for eight and a half hours in a waterfall of recollections which spread like a delta of tributaries before rejoining the main topic. For the sake of coherence, I have had to edit her interview substantially.

We had met one another at a symposium in an academic setting in Amsterdam. She had been one of the subjects of the research being presented there. During a round of audience questions, she spoke out, condemning the research, (which was slanted to provide ammunition for the pro-prostitution, decriminalisation lobby), as superficial and thus inaccurate. Her comment went something like this, “I don’t know who all you spoke to for this so-called research, because we can call ourselves lucky that we are part of the two percent who have supposedly ‘chosen’ to do this – although as I see it, forced through necessity is also forced. All those other women, you don’t get to speak to them. I can hardly find a way to exchange two words with them, so you certainly didn’t. And without their voices, this whole presentation is just nonsense.” The microphone was swiftly passed to someone else. But this comment, particularly coming as it does, from someone who still finds themselves in a situation of prostitution, hits the nail on the head – exactly whose voices is it that we are hearing when we are told that ‘sex workers’ have supposedly been included in the debate or decision-making process? It is my hope that this book contributes to a widening of the debate, by go unheard; to encourage us to question who is behind both the images we are seeing and the voices we are hearing; and to better understand “how some narratives are promoted while others are repressed to represent a particular version of history”.3 Dutch prostitution policy has carried on failing for much too long, and at a far too great a cost to the women suffering its consequences. It’s time now to step back from cosy red-light nostalgia and pathological tolerance and to determine a new course. We should be looking beyond the binary options of either punishing women who have, for whatever reason, ended

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

providing a place for the voices of a few of those others who generally

up selling the use of their bodies for sex, or else, removing all restrictions and casually allowing the prostitution industry to carry on business as usual. There is another option – the Nordic Model...

1 | www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-used-to-have-its-very-own-red-light districts-1.3328605 2 | For more testimonies from people trafficked into the Dutch sex industry, see Jimini Hignett, 2014, Mulier Sacer. The How To Go On series. 3 | Erica Rand, 2005, The Ellis Island Snow Globe, Duke University Press 4 | www.nordicmodelnow.org/what-is-the-nordic-model/

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A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

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Kata

I don’t like to remember my childhood, when I do, only bad things come to mind. There, a girl… a woman… was not considered like a person… only someone to be used. A thing, to earn money, to sell. I grew up in a situation where this was not questioned. It was considered so normal that when it happened to me, it did not occur to me to fight against it. I must have been six or seven years old – at least this is the earliest time I can remember – when my grandfather started using me sexually. I started staying on the streets with my friends from school, just to avoid going home. When I was twelve I got put in a children’s home... I used to run away from there a lot, I would go to Budapest and get money from men for sex. In Hungary prostitution is a crime. But if you’re underage

Sanko used to bring me to the street at eight in the morning and I had to work until six in the evening. He came every three hours to collect the money. In exchange I got to live with him and his wife, and he gave me food and cigarettes. I was fifteen. I saw them as family. I don’t have any family of my own. My father doesn’t love me, we don’t have any contact.

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

you aren’t punished.

Sanko called me his daughter and he said I had to do my best. If I earned good money from a customer he’d say, ‘Well done my good daughter’. In the beginning they were nice to me, but after that they changed… Once I was four months pregnant and he kicked me in the stomach. I had a miscarriage. An ambulance had to pick me up and take me to the big hospital. I didn’t tell them what happened, the doctors didn’t ask me. The baby had already been born, at home. I was really freaking out. It still goes through my head. When I got back from the hospital they beat me again. If I didn’t want to work, then Sanko would hit me in the face with a broom handle. They beat me a lot. If I didn’t earn enough they beat me.

Just one day after giving birth to my daughter Maya, I already had to go to work on the street. She was very small. I only stopped working three days before the birth. I didn’t have money and Sanko and his wife said I had to keep working, ‘You don’t have any nappies, you have to go to work.’ I said I was sick but they beat me. In the end I went to work... Later I left Maya behind and went to live with my sister. I worked for her and her boyfriend as a prostitute on the street. Then just before I turned 18, a man called Tobar came, he said I had to go with him to Amsterdam. Tobar told me they had sold me to him. My sister’s boyfriend had told him that I was a nice bit of stuff, that he didn’t need me anymore and that they were sure I would be able to earn a lot for him in Amsterdam, so he had bought me. I was not happy… I was not happy that he’d paid money or that they talked about me like that... I was afraid of Tobar because I saw what kind of a man he was. Sometimes he beat me for not earning enough money but mostly the reason I was hit was that I have been using drugs or alcohol. So I deserved it... I started to use drugs because I had to work, work, work. I was physically and mentally totally finished. I had to use

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something, so that I wouldn’t just break… Tobar decided I had to give him 1,000 euros a day. He didn’t care if I had to have sex without condoms, he only cared about me bringing the money back. I was only allowed to leave after closing time, at 5am. He said I had to have anal sex and to give blowjobs without a condom. I was given suppositories for the pain in my vagina and I had to keep working. You were only allowed to stay home if you literally couldn’t stand. Once I was so tired, I fell asleep in the cabin. He hit me for that. I got a broken nose... When he hit one of us, the others were sent through to the 96

bedroom. He didn’t want witnesses. I tried to run away to my sister. Other than my sister I had no-one in Hungary. Tobar came after me, and my sister’s boyfriend sold me to him again. For 400 euros. My sister told me. Tobar brought me back to Amsterdam again. He threatened that he would cut me from the corner of my mouth to my ear. He hit me… with a boxing glove, a truncheon, a baseball bat and a steak hammer. You couldn’t see the wounds because he made me kneel down and then he

hit my back and my head. I always had to go on my knees. He would say, ‘You know what to do’, then I knew I had to kneel... There was a basic rule that we weren’t allowed to talk to each other. Tobar always said, ‘How often have I told you, you aren’t allowed to talk to each other.’ I never had contact with Dutch girls. The only person I spoke to was the man renting the room. Other than my customers I had nobody, and in the beginning I only spoke Hungarian. There was nobody I could fall back on... I was just a thing, for them to use. And in the cabin the same, all that is important to the men is the cost – they always try to pay less… to make your value less. And that is what you feel, that you are not of any value. So how can you resist... you are just a thing. On the outside you have to pretend to enjoy, to smile, if not, you will not earn any money. But inside, inside you are not smiling, you are not enjoying, inside you are bleeding, you are empty. This no-one sees... and it destroys your resistance. You cannot show your true feelings, not even to yourself. You want to feel just nothing... Even you yourself try to believe in your own smile, because the reality is too hard to bear... I did think about running away but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know afraid that I wouldn’t be allowed to stay in the Netherlands, that I’d be sent home. I wanted to leave those people, but I was afraid because had nothing in Hungary. I was afraid I would end up homeless, and that I would have to work on the street again. The only person I had was Tobar... When they arrested Tobar it felt like I lost my family… but I was angry at how he treated me. When I start talking I realise what those people have done to me and to others… Looking back it was really very terrible. I am a bit angry. I’m a bit sad... I don’t know how things managed to get like this. My life is completely destroyed. I even lost my

A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects

anything. I thought about going to the police, but I didn’t dare. I was

daughter. Now I have nothing any more. 97

I always denied that I was a victim. They were like my family... But it wasn’t a nice family, I was afraid of Tobar... Not just of Tobar, but for life itself. I was afraid to lose my family and I didn’t want to be alone... I tried to leave Tobar a hundred times, I wanted to leave him… But I was in love with him.

This book is being produced as part of the

Katharina Klokau ensured smooth logistics in

installation Number 1 Tourist Attraction in the

the Amsterdam Museum.

Amsterdam Museum in 2019/2020. Firstly I thank curator, Annemarie de Wildt, and Renske de Jong of CBK Southeast, both of whom had faith in my work from the first encounter. There is also a large number of other people to whom I am extremely grateful for their support. The circumstances of the survivors of prostitution whose testimonies are included here, require that they remain anonymous. It took courage for them to share their stories, and for that my immense admiration and gratitude. Hannah Manneke and Jo Lewington warrant special acknowledgement for their intense involvement and support throughout, which has been unflagging. Marit van der Meer and Victor Levie made a huge

The How to go on Series

contribution with the design of the book.

162

Jolanda de Boer conscientiously fact-checked my texts. The following people carved their initials for Zandpad Revisited: Carlos Alberti, Simon Brod, Sam Critchley, Quinten Damen, Flint Louis Hignett, Hannah Manneke, Cecilia Mazza, Paulo Moreno, Roos Steigenga, Marinus Tenk, Pelle & Rob Vlaar. Tom Marfo, Sheetal Shah and The Bijlmer Project, and Gertjan ten Thije of Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis provided essential help with various practical matters. Text correction: Hannah Manneke, Jo Lewington, Jolanda de Boer Design: LevievanderMeer – Graphic & Exhibition Design. ©2019, Jimini Hignett. All rights reserved. No

Gabriel Piñero of La Plata, Argentina, assisted

part of this book may be reproduced without

me with the carving of Belle Revisted, and Huip

prior permission from the author.

van Dijk in Amsterdam with her re-assembly on this side of the Atlantic. Editor Hens van Rooy, cameraman Wiro Felix, and colour-correctors Ramon Coelho & Ruud de Bruyn, ensured better quality videos.

Other books by Jimini Hignett: How To Go On – making art when everything is all fucked up – 2008 The Detroit Diary (Best Swiss Book Award) – 2010

Martijn, Becky and Flint assisted on numerous

Mulier Sacer – 2013

random occasions.

If Bees Are Few (with Doris Denekamp) – 2014

To purchase these books or for more of Hignett’s artistic practice : www.HowToGoOn.com Information about the ‘Nordic Law’: www.nordicmodelnow.org/what-is-the-nordic-model/ The exhibition and this book have been made possible thanks to the financial support of

A woman smiling and kicking her legs joyfully in the air… A windmill with topless women sunbathing on each of its blades… A teddy bear in black thigh-length boots, with a whip and a dildo… A heart-shaped tattoo reading ‘The Prostitute in Me’… A pole dancer saying ‘Spin Me!’… A woman in a doorway wearing nothing but black underwear and a Christmas hat… In Amsterdam, in the souvenir shops, holding a prominent place alongside the windmills, tulips, clogs, cows, bicycles and canals, is the Red Light District. The area is actively promoted as a major attraction, and is visited annually by two-and-a-half million tourists. What are the images and objects that they take away with them, and how do these reflect the realities of life there? A woman daily forced to give blow jobs and have anal sex without a condom... A girl tricked into prostitution with the promise of an education… A man blindfolded and obliged to have sex in order to pay off his ‘debt’... A woman forced to have the largest possible breast implants… A teen-mother selling sex so as to feed her child… A Small Collection of Innocuous Objects juxtaposes the stories of survivors of the Dutch sex industry with a detailed description and analysis of each artefact in this collection. Unveiling the subliminal message conveyed by the imagery, the incongruities between the survivors’ testimonies and the world portrayed by the souvenirs, shed light on the larger links which are often ignored in the debate concerning prostitution, and open up a space for reflection on this sensitive issue.

ISBN 978-90-8223-831-0

9 789082 238310 >