Larissa Sansour
Rogue Agents of History
Wereldmuseum Amsterdam
24 April – 27 September 2026
Graphic design Kathrin Hero
Spatial design Anika Ohlerich, Archetypisch
Photos Aad Hoogendoorn
The exhibition
Rogue Agents of History is the first major solo exhibition in the Netherlands by Palestinian artist and filmmaker Larissa Sansour, curated by Nat Muller. Bringing together film, sculpture, photography and historical objects, the exhibition premieres A Sunken Tale of Losses Delayed (2026), a new commission developed with writer and filmmaker Søren Lind.
Across multiple timelines – from Ottoman histories and present-day geopolitics to imagined futures – the exhibition explores how art and film can unsettle official narratives, recreate historical meaning and open space for other possible pasts and futures. Through speculative fiction, archaeology, memory and material culture, Sansour’s work asks who has the right to history, and how that history might be retold.
The film
At the centre of the exhibition is the new work A Sunken Tale of Losses Delayed (2026). Set aboard a ghostly Palestinian pirate ship travelling across centuries, the film follows a crew of spectral
sailors who retrieve lost objects, displaced memories and forgotten histories drifting through time. As the vessel moves between eras, fragments of Palestinian cultural heritage intersect with maritime histories connected to the Netherlands, the Mediterranean and beyond.
The work reflects on the circulation of objects, stories and identities across empires, oceans and archives.
The design
Concepts like aquatic time travel, science-fictional archiving and timeless place cards (of the rogue agents) served as inspiration for the design of the graphic layer to this exhibition.
