by Josée Thissen-Rojer
This whole month (February 2021), Restaurant & Café Gouverneur de Rouville in Otrobanda is hosting an exhibition featuring 6 artists. It’s a remarkable exhibition in a remarkable location, and the initiator, Bethyamin van Nieuwenhuizen, born in Venezuela, explains how it all came about.
Over the past few years, Bethyamin has slowly made the transition from a career in body painting to creating wall objects and participating in gallery exhibitions. In 2017, at the invitation of Kas di Kultura Kòrsou, which was still in existence at that time, Bethyamin creates an installation in Villa Maria, which has 2 visual art exhibitions going on. Bethyamin’s installation ties in with the group exhibition in Villa Maria “Tula, Historia Kompartí” (Tula, shared history), where visual artists tell the story of the slave revolt of 1795 through their artworks. The other exhibition is a solo exhibition by Martie Genger, “Stima Otro, bida di Martie Genger” (Love each other, the life of Martie Genger).
Bethyamin’s installation, entitled “In the name of…”, is in a separate room, and deals with the theme of pregnancy during slavery. She uses plaster torsos of pregnant women, and she highlights this theme by displaying the painted torsos and props. It’s the first time that Bethyamin has publicized her work in such a way.
In 2018, Bethyamin is part of the group exhibition in Gallery Alma Blou, ‘Yu di Kòrsou Uní’, also at the invitation of Kas di Kultura. In 2019, she becomes more well-known as a body painter through the Tumba festival when she paints the torso of Rocco, singer of the Aruban band Buleria, with a combination of the flags of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Rocco wanted to highlight that the islands should be more united. In that same year, she also participates in the group exhibition at Landhuis Bloemhof, Renobashon (Renewal). This exhibition reflects on the 50 years after May 30, 1969. For this exhibition, she creates a wall object with a gold-colored plaster torso of a pregnant belly. She combines it with a live performance, during which she paints the belly of a pregnant woman. It’s a symbolic gesture of renewal and change, drawing attention to the positive changes that have been initiated after May 30.