written by Josée Thissen-Rojer

The sculpture exhibition in Amsterdam, better known as ARTZUID, displays the works of 4 artists from Curaçao: David Bade, Carlos Blaaker, Nelson Carrilho and Tirzo Martha.

ARTZUID takes place every 2 years, and this time will display the works of 50 artists. All the works are outside in the open air, making the exhibition easily accessible. This is the 7^th edition and the title for 2021 is ‘Imagine’. The reason behind this is that it’s been 50 years since musician and defender of peace, John Lennon (1940 – 1980), wrote the song ‘Imagine’. The organizing committee reasons that the invited artists, just like Lennon in his day, are all concerned with current topics and dream of a way to straighten the world’s crooked hat.

The sculpture route is 5 kilometers long and incorporates a sculpture of John Lennon next to a peace sign, created by Laura Lian (Cambridge, 1952), at the entrance of the Hilton Hotel. This is the hotel where Lennon and Yoko Ono (1933) spent their honeymoon, with the famous ‘Bed-in for peace’.

The first sculpture on the route by a Curaçaoan is by Tirzo Martha. His work ‘The Interpretation and Identification of the Meaning of Life’ is a tower made up of several iron cages containing objects like a car tire. The text ‘Lapi bo tire aki’ (‘Fix your tire here’) is written on the tire. It’s obvious that the artist is provoking us to think deeper on the meaning of the statement in the title of his work. Tirzo uses materials and objects of daily use for his works. In this way, he manages to reach a vast and diverse audience.

Nelson Carrilho is represented with 2 Bronze works. ‘The other face’ is a figure taking off its mask to show us its face. But the true face lacks any physiognomy or expression. ‘Dragers van Verre’ (Carriers from afar) is a sculpture with a height of 4 meters. The work symbolizes diaspora from various nations, who for one reason or another leave their native land to create a home elsewhere. At the same time, this is the artist’s own story.

The work by Carlos Blaaker, ‘Balancerend met mijn dingen’ (Balancing with my things) is a recognizable work, as there are two works in Otrobanda that are the same: the bust of a female figure with a load on her head. Carlos puts more emphasis on the balance with the work in ARTZUID, as only the tip of the enormous load makes contact with her head. As if indicating that the balance is something that’s difficult and precarious.

David Bade is the last Curaçaoan sculptor on the route. Bade participates with the work ‘Appropriation Apropos’. This is a sculpture of a break-dancer on an exercise machine. The sculpture is in the colors of the Dutch flag: red, white, and blue. Breakdance is a form of dance that originated in marginalized neighborhoods in America in the seventies. The dance is made up of complicated acrobatic movement, making it hard to do. Perhaps Bade uses the colors of the Dutch flag to indicate that despite the popularity of breakdance in the Western World, it’s something from another culture that has been appropriated.

ARTZUID is the prestigious biennial of Dutch sculpture, that takes place in Zuid-Amsterdam. The exhibition began on July 1^st and will remain until October 21^st, 2021. More information is available on their website artzuid.nl.

This post was made possible by the financial support of Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied.
Previously published in Èxtra, on Wednesday, September 22, 2021. Photographs by Josée Thissen-Rojer.
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.