(photo: Otto Snoek)
“What do I know about the Surinamese visual arts?” That was the question that the Rotterdam-based visual artist Ralph van Meijgaard asked himself in 2005. At the beginning of 2006, he stayed in Suriname for two months and decided to start investigating. He visited the Readytex and House of Arts galleries and the National Art Fair. The exhibits included paintings and sculptures in realistic, symbolist, lyrical-abstract and even in impressionist styles. The palette was tropical, but most subjects turned out to be traditionally Western European. His curiosity was stimulated by an artwork by Kurt Nahar and by the paintings of Ron Flu, criticising society. Van Meijgaard decided to meet Flu. “I visited him at home. He gave me an update on the turbulent history of Suriname. As well as art, we also talked about the poor infrastructure and planning. We devised a work of art to put the finger right on the sore spot: a cast of a hole in the road in front of his house together with the coordinates of the location on a sign.” The work of art was never made and the hole has now been repaired.
Van Meijgaard also
talked to George Ramjiawansingh of the Nola Hatterman Art Academy, who said
that new impulses were always welcome. Ramjiawansingh immediately invited
Ralph to give a drawing workshop: for two weeks he had to take charge of two
different groups every working day — one in the daytime for the regular
Nola students, and one in the evening, a mixed group of children and adults.
“ I gave the same tasks to both groups. For instance, to make a drawing
of a given concept and investigate the flexibility of the portrayal of that
concept. And does that also change your feel for the concept? Very analytical.
Sometimes generated a bit of confusion. Nola teacher George Struikelblok had
to lend a hand and provide an explanation.” Ralph had to return to Rotterdam
shortly afterwards. He had decided to make use of his travel experiences and
contacts in the Netherlands. “I was very enthusiastic about Suriname.
Things had been different eight years ago. There was a depressed atmosphere
at that time. Now, five years later, I observed movement and people who wanted
to show
what they could do. I felt a longing for more, for contact, globalisation.
I wanted to zero in on that.”
In Rotterdam, Van Meijgaard contacted Thomas Meijer zu Schlochtern of the Centrum Beeldende Kunst (Visual Arts Centre). They left for Suriname six months later to see if it was possible to set up a cooperation project. The day after they landed, a meeting was held at Nola that was also attended by Stanley Sidoel of the Culture Directorate and representatives of the Federation of Visual Artists in Suriname (FVAS). The Rotterdam delegation was immediately allowed to join in and unexpectedly quickly got to the heart of Suriname’s cultural infrastructure. The subsequent discussions laid the foundation for the ArtRoPa exchange project. Van Meijgaard became the coordinator of the Rotterdam guest workshop programme.
From June 2007 to September 2009, a total of 8 Surinamese artists stayed in the city on the Maas. Seven of them — George Struikelblok, Hedwig ‘Plu’ de la Fuente, Steve Ammersingh, Kurt Nahar, Jhunri Udenhout, Ravi Rajcoomar and Roddney Tjon Poen Gie — were accommodated at the artists’ initiative Duende. The eighth, Roberto Tjon A Meeuw, stayed at the B.a.d. Foundation with his family. The artists worked for a period of one to three months. They all concluded their stay with a presentation of the work that had been produced in Rotterdam. Van Meijgaard also very much wanted to contribute to the ArtRoPa project as a visual artist. He had a proposal for a project with Surinamese artists, which was an extension of his workshop at Nola. The storehouse of the Surinamese Museum in Paramaribo was its starting point. “Thomas and I had access to the attic where they had stored artefacts that had been produced in the most divergent cultural backgrounds: wood carving, utensils and pictures — and LPs too. I wanted to invite a number of Surinamese artists to pick something that for some reason appealed to them from that storehouse. They would have to adopt that object mentally, taking it home was out of the question. They then had to process that object, e.g. by magnifying a visual quality, or by depicting the suspected background of that object, or making up a story around it. This would create new works of art from that first artefact. Finally, the new works of art could be stored in a similar parallel storehouse, distinguished from the old one merely by a shift of meaning and transformation.” The plan was cancelled because the director of the Surinamese Museum did not expect it would yield anything. He informed Van Meijgaard by e-mail that it would take a long time for the museum to categorise the collection, and he did not need any outsiders interfering with that process. On top of that, the first visit by the people from Rotterdam had been clandestine.
Meanwhile, Van Meijgaard had approached artists, mainly ArtRoPa participants, to see if they were willing to participate in the project. They all reacted enthusiastically but recognised the organisational problems. It is hard to keep a process going in Suriname when you are in Holland. Surinamese artists think twice before taking part in a project if the prestige and outcome are uncertain. It is understandable, since being an artist in Suriname is a question of survival. “It was impossible to carry out the project without support in Suriname, and I would also have had to stay in Suriname for an uninterrupted period to supervise the project. It was impossible for me to do that, as I was involved in other organisational matters in the Netherlands. In addition, my role as a guide and host for the Surinamese artists in Rotterdam became increasingly important.”
In spite of reports by those who had gone before them, the Surinamese artists hardly suspected what awaited them on the other side of the ocean. An open mind and a substantial dose of self-knowledge formed the required mindset when they started their adventure. The paths and scope of action for subsequent artists were very varied. Using the slogan ‘DaDa lives!’ Kurt Nahar visited nearly all second-hand markets in the country looking for stuff for his art installations. Steve Ammersingh stayed closer to home, at the Okee café in Crooswijk. The regulars, whom Steve had come to know as part of the natural course of events, visited the final multimedia presentation by Kurt and Steve and set foot inside the CBK for the first time. So Steve put the CBK’s objective of reaching a wider public for modern art into practice.
How does Van Meijgaard look back on the guest workshop programme? “The nice thing about ArtRoPa was that something that was once only the privilege of a few was suddenly brought within reach of more artists. The Surinamese came to Rotterdam to see where they stood in relation to international developments in the visual arts and to face the ‘big wide world’. Any confusion it created might also give new impulses to their work. I followed that process closely to see what would be kept and what would be removed, what would grow or be improved. At the same time, the artists came to the Netherlands with their portfolio under their arm to show what they were worth. They showed their most recent work, indicating that they wanted to continue with this work, certainly if people wanted to buy it. After all, you can change everything, but what use is that to them if it isn’t appreciated in Suriname? It’s a dilemma. I waited excitedly for the crucial moment when ideas started to run through their heads. But I also realised that that this would not necessarily have to happen during the ‘residency period’, as we call it.
At the end of their stay, most of the artists said that they thought it a pity that their time was up. When he waved them goodbye at Schiphol, Van Meijgaard thought of the struggle that they had to face at home. “Not everyone would have the energy for this, but in some cases the residency will have given a wide-angle view, as if through the periscope of a submarine that is now diving. If things work out really well, the artist will share his experiences with other artists. That’s not always done in artistic circles, though. People are inclined to keep ideas to themselves.”
In spite of the growing pains that a young nation has had to deal with, Van Meijgaard believes that Suriname can become the sparkling centre of the Caribbean region in the near future, with Paramaribo as the art metropolis. “Suriname is a micro-world, a conceptual country where cultures are thrown together, whether they like it or not. In my wildest fantasies, Suriname is a template for the macro-world, because of its relaxed way of handling contrasts. This is where Suriname’s strength lies. There is potential for sure, but choices will have to be made and there is still no clear vision. On the one hand, Suriname is selling its birthright almost indecently, and on the other hand, it is jumping into bed with some very strange characters. Whether this will result in a good marriage, is very much the question.”
Arnold Schalks, Rotterdam, 6 October 2009
(translated from the Dutch by Mike & Clare Wilkinson/Ruud Faulhaber)