Roosje Verschoor: Double Heritage @OSCAM

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Double Heritage @OSCAM

Exhibition
Amsterdam (NL)
August 2020
Thanks to Marian Duff
Supported by Fonds voor ZuidoostGemeente Zuidoost

First and foremost, the photo project Double Heritage resulted in the photographic book ‘Moengo!’. Secondly, a selection of the photos was shown during expositions in Moengo and Paramaribo. After the expo’s in Suriname, another exhibition took place in the Netherlands, at the Open Space Contemporary Art Museum (OSCAM) in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.

The Double Heritage exhibition at OSCAM lasted for two weeks. The opening featured a winti priestess (Marian Markelo), who consacrated the exhibition, three gamelan players (Widosari Gamelan Ensemble), who played songs about tradition and renewal, and a spoken word artist (Tirsa With), who recited work about identity, heritage, and post-colonialism.
The opening was sold out (100 people). For the exhibition and related events, I applied for additional funds: Fonds voor Zuidoost and Gemeente Zuidoost. The profits from sold pictures went to the young photographers from Moengo.

During the exhibition, I led a four day workshop about storytelling in photography for young people in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. The assignments I gave them during the workshops were similar to the ones I gave the young workshop participants in Moengo, and adressed the same themes; identity and surroundings, history and future, demise and resilience.

The workshop concluded with a presentation at OSCAM, during which their photographs were added to the exhibition.

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Open Space Contemporary Art Museum (OSCAM) in Amsterdam South East, opening night

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My opening speech at the exhibition, welcoming the public and talking about the project and its results

Marian Markelo, Winti priestess, consecrating the exhibition. Winti is a Surinamese philosophical and religious expression that originated during slavery

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Gamelan ensemble Widosari played songs about tradition and renewal

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Spoken word artist Tirsa With performed work on the subjects of identity, heritage, and post-colonialism: "Backside of the Moon", "Colonial Amnesia", and "Mi Anga Mi Pangi"

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Some of the visitors during the exhibition's opening night

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The sold-out opening had a total of one hundred visitors

Left: posing on the Casa Blanca stairs, in 1947 and in 2018. Right: family party at Jerusa's

Left: buildings in Stafdorp. Right: the mineworkers' union building, now a church

Jerusa's mother

Overview of part of the exhibition

Left: some of the pieces from the Double Heritage collection. Right: some of the pieces created during the workshops in Amsterdam South East

Left to right: Casa Blanca’s billiards table (Gideon Plein) | a bed in one of the Stafdorp houses (Robbert Booi) | the swimming pool (Linio Kastiel) | Casa Blanca (Robbert Booi) | David tests the kitchen telephone (Gideon Plein) | nature takes over the abandoned buildings (David Booi)

Left: Jerusa: ‘This is kawai. It grows on trees. Once it’s picked, it’s dried and fashioned into a piece of craft, which we then dance with'. Right: Basta: ‘This game is called Fevi ston, and people have been playing it since the old days. You look for five small stones, throw them up in the air, and let them fall on the ground. Then, you throw one back up and pick one off the ground before catching the first one. Then, you throw those two, pick up a third off the ground and catch the first two. You throw three stones, grab a fourth, and so on. You keep going until you need to catch five rocks.’

Clockwise from the top: 1) In 1984, Ronnie Brunswijk robbed the Bank of Suriname in Moengo, in an attempt to raise funds for a coup he was planning against Desi Bouterse. Brunswijk was locked up in Fort Zeelandia, but managed to escape. 2) "Brunswijk blew up this bridge to stop Bouterse’s forces, during the Interior War. Now there’s a new bridge." 3) "You asked me to photograph something I have, that my parents don’t. That’s my diploma, from when I finished school." Education was not as much a given for the previous generation as it was for Jerusa’s. The interior war sometimes made going to school impossible for their parents

A picture made by Linio of his friends, taken at Moengo's central square

Double Heritage project description

Double Heritage exhibition description