Sara Blokland & Jaya Pelupessy

‘Srefi den si’ literally means ‘show you can do it yourself’. It is the name of Suriname’s independence, which was proclaimed on 25 November 1975. In the research project ‘Srefidensi and the flag’, Sara Blokland and Jaya Pelupessy focus on the transience of symbols of colonial power and the quest for new symbols in the run-up to independence. From a shared polit- ical-historical sensitivity and interest in the question how a new national identity emerges, Blokland and Pelupessy focus on the more than life-sized granite statue of a young Queen Wilhelmina, which was placed in Paramaribo in 1923. The statue represents colonial power and shows the queen in a flowing robe, like that of a Greek goddess. The statue was removed shortly before independence, hastily and in the dead of night, to avoid offending Surinamese monarchists. Blokland and Pelupessy compiled a collage-like film out of archival materials. They intertwine images of the statue with the ambiguous images of its careful removal and fragments of criticism. On the day of independence, the flag of Suriname was hoisted on the spot where the statue had stood for 52 years.

Nest ruimte voor kunst
ExhibitionsEvents
Nest

Double Plus Good

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Artists
Curators
  • Heske ten Cate
  • Laurie Cluitmans
In collaboration with
  • Aveline de Bruin

The group exhibition Double Plus Good presents artworks that are the result of one-off collaborations between artists. The artists in this exhibition take the vulnerable step to open up their practice to other makers, and explore each other’s world of thinking through paper, films and installations. What drives artists to engage in occasional or long-term collaboration with other makers or thinkers?

Double Plus Good includes collaborations between teachers and (former) students, between lovers and loners, between different generations and artists with a shared history. Together they enter a conversation with each other in their work, challenge each other to take the next step or to delve deeper into their matter.

The exhibition is a follow-up to ‘Collaborations’, an exhibition that Aveline de Bruin, of the Collection de Bruin-Heijn, previously showed in the Portuguese Quetzal Art Center and is being further developed and curated with her, curator contemporary art Centraal Museum Laurie Cluitmans and artistic director of Nest Heske ten Cate.

Read the introduction ‘Collaboration creates community‘ that Heske ten Cate wrote for the exhibition and her reflection on a period of intensive collaborations at Nest, as well as the essay ‘Nothing makes itself‘ by Laurie Cluitmans. Everything about the exhibition and the artists can be read here.

Collectie de Bruin-Heijn
The collection of Cees and Inge de Bruin-Heijn grew into one of the largest private collections in the Netherlands. The De Bruin-Heijn collection is managed by their daughter Aveline de Bruin, and in 2016 the family opened their own exhibition space for contemporary art: Quetzal Art Center in Vidigueira, Portugal.

Sponsors
  • Mondriaan Fonds
  • Stroom Den Haag
  • Gemeente Den Haag
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