Spirit of Collection #1 (2018)

What started off as a series of drawings, paintings and texts about forgotten histories, memories and heritage grew out to become a curatorial concept with art, music, performance and theatre: The Spirit of Collection. As part of the Nijmeegse Kunstnacht (Art Night) and in cooperation with the Africa Museum this project took place at the local concert hall Merleyn. While some of the protagonists of my stories have lost their physical bodies or disappeared in museum depots and archives, singer-songwriter Otion, the Night Theatre, artists Serge Kponton, Remco Visser, Jolijn Ceelen and the collective of Planet AiRich brought them back to life. Together with the local organizers we created an Afrofuturistic atmosphere, a future for historic figures, by which they became able to comment on the present. Their characters reflected their original attitude and personality, their agency, imagination and optimism.

Participating artists:

Fana Richters/Planet AiRich (Suriname/NL)

Guillermo Blinker/Otion (Suriname/NL)

Remco Visser (NL)

Jolijn Ceelen (NL)

Serge Kponton (Benin/FRA)

..and myself.