HMK {Hotel MariaKapel} and Art Bakery Present:
Elopement
A lovable exchange between The Netherlands and Cameroon
Steven Jouwersma
Alioum Moussa
Justine Ngaga
Boris Nzebo Nzepang
Sander Veenhof
In November and December 2009 HMK will enter into a close collaboration with artists initiative Art Bakery in Douala, Cameroon. Dutch artists Sander Veenhof and Steven Jouwersma and HMK-curator Jantine Wijnja will reside at Art Bakery for a three-week work period between 27 October and 16 November. Between 24 November and 14 December Cameroonian artists Alioum Moussa, Justine Ngaga and Boris Nzebo Nzepang will undertake a residency at HMK. A presentation concluding their visit will take place at HMK on Sunday 13 December.
We welcome you to follow the project from a distance via this blog, which will be updated regularly throughout the project.
To elope means to take flight or slip away, usually with amorous intentions. We are eloping with Art Bakery in order to temporarily work closely together with a friendly institution abroad, hoping to broaden the horizon of all involved by literally having to work within each others structures. Noticing how somebody else is working through operating within their framework can unstitch some of your own automatisms. Finding yourself in a different artworld and working with different ingredients can refresh the approaches and viewpoints of all involved, whether they are artist, organizer or audience.
On 13 December from 4 pm onwards concluding presentations will be held at HMK. The program for the afternoon will be announced in November.
About the artists
Steven Jouwersma makes installations and machines. Two noticeable componants of his work are the collecting of discarded consumergoods and the involvement of people in his projects. For the installation Dia-Exit he collected private slide archives which could be viewed and subsequently destroyed by the visitors of the installation. Music also has a part to play. Club de Gootsteen (‘Club Sink’) is a public audio art piece consisting of two sink drains which have been fitted into the sidewalk. From the drains, music from local amateurmusicians is being broadcast.
Alioum Moussa is a graphic designer and visual artist. He works in a variety of media and a range of subjects, often with a social emphasis. He parttook in de IAAB residency programme in Basel in 2006 and the Arts & Urbis International workshop in 2007.
Via photography, painting, installations and recently also video works, Justine Ngaga explores themes like loneliness, alienation and migration. Recently she undertook a residency at Thapong Visual Arts Centre in Botswana.
Boris Nzebo Nzepang worked as a decorator of barber shops in the neighbourhood before switching to an indepth exploration of hairstyling in Douala. Hair cuts and styling seem to encapsulate a whole universe that fascinates the artist and allows him to understand the society he lives in.
Sander Veenhof creates connections between different worlds. Somtimes literally, sometimes conceptually. By combining digital logic with analogue jests or by coupling different dimensions he creates a universe with new possibilities. He created plants whose growth was based on web-statistics or google hits and made a physical interface for youtube In many of his projects Veenhof experiments with unusual kinds of interactivity. For instance during the TodaysArt08 festival, where unsuspecting passers-by parttook in an interactive choreography without their knowledge.
Elopement: A lovable exchange between The Netherlands and Cameroon is kindly supported by the Mondriaan Stichting, the Province of North Holland, and the City of Hoorn.
HMK {Hotel MariaKapel}
Gallery: Korte Achterstraat 2a
gallery hours: thu-fri 6-9 pm, sat-sun 2-5 pm
Office: Korte Achterstraat 6
1621 GA Hoorn
office@hotelmariakapel.nl
