by Josée Thissen-Rojer

The current COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up everyone’s daily lives to some extent and things are no different in the visual arts sector. In this series, we visit local visual artists and ask what changes they’ve experienced and how they’re dealing with the situation. This time, we are in Kunuku Abou with Philippe Zanolino.

Philippe Zanolino (France, 1960) is part of a group of visual artists from Curaçao, established in the eighties of the twentieth century. They were the face of the local art world for a long time. The book ‘Three Caribbean Artists’, in which American art historian Susan Wilczak provides an extensive picture of the life and work of Philippe Zanolino, was published in 2019.

Susan Wilczak describes Philippe’s bond with Curaçao from the moment he came to live here in 1986, and how he developed from a self-taught artist into a prominent local master at a time when the visual arts sector in the Caribbean was undergoing a transition. It’s well-known that Philippe quit medical school to become an artist, and Wilczak notes that through his artworks and the messages he incorporates into them, he’s still curing and healing people.

It’s now been 10 years since he moved to Bandabou and started living a more withdrawn lifestyle there. His house on the road to Sint Willibrordus stands out due to the enormous works of art that surround it. It’s his home, temple, studio, and gallery in one. Every day, he takes long walks in the mondi, accompanied by his dogs. Through hard work and regular exhibitions, he’s built up an incredible reputation in the local and international art world over the years. Even though he now lives in seclusion, art lovers, galleries and collectors still know where to find him.

The pandemic has changed Philippe’s life in a completely different way than expected. “Life”, says Philippe, “determines what happens to you, and you simply have no other choice”. When the world is under the spell of the new Coronavirus in 2020, he meets Dutch psychologist Ingeborg Bosch, creator of the Past Reality Integration therapy (PRI), about which she’s written several books. Sparks fly when they meet, they fall in love, and within 11 days their love is made official. Philippe is delighted and he creates a beautiful wedding ring for his bride made of coral, shells, and pieces of blue-colored glass which form a bird, to seal their love. To Philippe, birds symbolize love, so it comes as no surprise that he incorporated this symbol in the ring.

The effect of the pandemic on the sales of his artwork is a completely different story. In recent years, the collectors and art lovers who’ve been purchasing his work have mainly come from abroad. International aviation has come to a standstill due to the lockdowns that are being announced everywhere, and this makes quite an impact on Philippe. Sales have come to a standstill, and this worries him.

He personally didn’t have too much trouble dealing with the lockdown in 2020 because he’s quite solitary and very disciplined in his work. He spends long days in his studio and the lockdown doesn’t change that. During the past year, he’s started to focus more on the small sculptures, the so-called ‘love warriors’ that he makes. He creates these with all kinds of materials found in nature: coral, shells, random objects, and always a small piece of deep blue glass. The blue symbolizes the spiritual world that Philippe allows himself to be guided by in everything he does.

Philippe is an artist because that’s his calling in life, and with his works of art he wants to contribute to making the world more a beautiful and better place. When he’s working, he’s guided by his intuition and the conviction that everything in the universe is as it should be. His work has a message: “If the world is currently dealing with a crisis”, he says, “that also means we’re on the road to healing and recovery. Art plays an important role in this process of transformation.”

He points out meeting and marrying Ingeborg. The soul connection of the newlyweds is reflected in a wedding portrait named ‘Dependensia’ (Dependency), which is a diptych. The brown-colored bone in the middle of the two works connects the two pieces. The dog symbolizes God in his oeuvre and Philippe explains that the bone represents God’s gifts. The dependence on one another in the relationship is symbolized in the painting by the bone that’s divided between the two pieces. A relationship is about cooperation and his message is that this is where we need to focus our efforts. The answer to all life’s questions can be found in team spirit because the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Philippe has 4 grown children and because he’s always worked from home, he’s raised all 4 of them. He is proud of his children and the strong bond he has with them. His son Giovani Zanolino (France, 1986) is the only one to live in Curaçao, and he’s also an artist. Last Friday, Giovani opened his new art gallery in Pietermaai, where his father Philippe’s work can also be seen.

During these pandemic times, Philippe relies on his faith that everything will be fine. Now that the world has come to a standstill, it has also provided an opportunity to reevaluate everything. The new happiness that has come his way so unexpectedly has made him realize that COVID-19 can also bring positive things. He hopes that, instead of a competitive world, we can now create a society where cooperation is the key. This is an opportunity for the younger generations to start creating a new type of society.

This post was made possible by the financial support from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied.
Previously published in Amigoe. Photographs by Edsel Sambo.

This text, in whole or part, may only be reproduced with reference to the source: Curaçao Art®️, www.curacao-art.com, and the author. Copyright of the artworks remains the property of the artist.