While everyone was initially preoccupied with hoarding during the corona pandemic, or with their fellow hoarders, Roosje Verschoor wondered when the word “hamsteren” (hoarding) was first used in the Netherlands. This curiosity led her back to the food shortages that plagued the poor populations in Dutch cities during World War I. When a group of women from the Amsterdam working-class neighborhood, the Jordaan, heard that a ship with potatoes was docked in the city while they could barely feed their children, they revolted and plundered the ship. Women from other neighborhoods followed, supported by workers who went on strike. This revolt, known as the Potato Riots, forms the core of the project “Hete Aardappel” (Hot Potato) (2021) that Verschoor is showcasing at Prospects. The artist is always in search of hidden stories and their underlying social structures.

From a fries cart outside on the grounds of Art Rotterdam and Big Art, she distributed small cones of fries. This act references the period when potatoes were rationed. At the same time, the snack alludes to the spoiled “patatgeneratie” (fries generation), as Verschoor and her peers are called. On the cones, there was a QR code leading to a digital map that tracks where and how the riots unfolded in Amsterdam. In this “Boezelaarskompas” (Apron Compass), named after the aprons the women wore, Verschoor has combined archival material and fiction. She also incorporated archival material into collages on paper made from potato peels. The final part of this exploration of the Netherlands’ most famous staple food is a series of valuable bronze potatoes.