What: National Art Fair 2013
When: August 16-24, 2013. Opening hours: 17:00-21:00 hrs
Where: Garden De Surinaamsche Bank N.V., Henck Arronstraat 26-30, Paramaribo
A first photographic impression of the National Art Fair can be found on the Sranan Art Flickr account.
Dorette Kuster, installation, 2013 | PHOTO Marieke Visser, 2013
My personal first impression in words follows below.
Day 1. August 15, 2013
It felt very good to be back on that location. At the beginning of 2010 De Surinaamsche Bank hosted the exhibition Paramaribo SPAN. A milestone in Suriname’s art history. The garden, the garden house, the parking lot, the pool: they seem to inspire the artists to raise the bar. It was so nice to see familiar faces of the DSB Bank work force, people who have been touched by the Paramaribo SPAN experience.
The opening activity itself was not really visible nor audible for half the audience because of the way things were organized. With so many people not being able to listen or see, it took too long before the exhibition was finally declared opened.
As always with the National Art Fair: the amount of guests, the amount of artists, the amount of works of art can be quite overwhelming. The adagium “Less is more” springs to mind, more than once, as always too.
But, to see the work in that venue, instead of in the depressing Ons Erf, is a huge step forward. Still, a more balanced presentation would be better. Now, the work of established artists is mixed with that of beginning artists. That is not good for either party involved.
I do think though that the National Art Fair has managed, in all these 48 editions it has been through, to lower the threshold for visual arts in a remarkable and impressive manner, and for that I think the organization deserves respect and gratitude.
Dakaya Lenz, ‘Bent or broken’, 2013| PHOTO Marieke Visser, 2013
Leonnie van Eert, ceramics | PHOTO Marieke Visser, 2013
René Tosari, ‘Protection’, 2013 | PHOTO Marieke Visser, 2013
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The Association of Visual Artists in Suriname, the ABKS, with a.o. Soeki, Anand Binda, Ron Flu, Sri Irodikromo, Kim Sontosoemarto, Pierre Bong a Jan, Leo Wong Loi Sing, Jhunry Udenhout and Ardie Setropawiro, will give individual demonstrations during the National Art Fair. You are invited to visit and enjoy seeing the artists at work.
TEXT Marieke Visser
Marieke Visser (Bennekom, the Netherlands, 1962) studied journalism and language and literature in the Netherlands. As publicist she writes a lot about art, culture, history and tourism from her own news agency Swamp Fish Press. The three most recent large art projects to which she has contributed are: Wakaman Drawing lines, connecting dots,Paramaribo SPAN and Kibii Wi Koni Marcel Pinas The Event. She is currently editor in chief of Sranan Art Xposed.
