Paramaribo SPAN is a conversation about contemporary art and visual culture in Suriname. It will conclude with an exhibition in Paramaribo in February 2010, accompanied by a book published in three language editions. This blog is the online component of the project. It is at once a journal, an archive, and an independent creative undertaking. For more information, read our introductory note.
Curators: Christopher Cozier, Thomas Meijer zu Schlochtern
Curatorial advisor, Paramaribo: Marcel Pinas
Contributing writers: Chandra van Binnendijk, Marieke Visser
Project coordinator: Ann Hermelijn
Blog editor: Nicholas Laughlin
Project: Jeroen Jongeleen’s “culture hacking
Friday, February 5, 2010
“Site & Content Specific Art (Practice)”, graffiti by Jeroen Jongeleen in the Palmentuin, Paramaribo; photo courtesy the artist
The Rotterdam-based artist Jeroen Jongeleen, one of the participants in the ArtRoPa exchange programme, spent several weeks in Paramaribo in late 2007 and early 2008. Here the Dutch critic Siebe Thissen describes Jongeleen’s work in Paramaribo, in an excerpt from a longer essay in the Paramaribo SPAN catalogue.
Jeroen Jongeleen’s work in Paramaribo staged an encounter between street images and the visual arts. Jongeleen plastered graffiti slogans in the city where he had spent his youth. With not a little irony, he sprayed the words “art in public spaces” on a neglected little concrete structure in the Palmentuin [Palm Gardens] — a nocturnal haunt for Paramaribo’s junkies.
“Buiten Kunst uit Rotterdam” (“Public Art from Rotterdam”), graffiti by Jeroen Jongeleen in Paramaribo; photo courtesy the artist
Jongeleen also added a monumental feature at the corner of Wanicastraat and Sophie Redmondstraat, close to the US Embassy. UNESCO may have declared Paramaribo’s old, well-preserved city centre a world heritage site, but small wooden workers’ houses, many of which have been neglected, do not enjoy that protection. Jongeleen painted one of those unlisted houses completely white, with window frames in light blue — the colour of UNESCO. His action introduced a new element into the visual culture of Paramaribo: “culture hacking”, or the power of art to react to and comment on the surrounding visual culture.
Painted house at 59 Wanicastraat; photo courtesy the artist
