The Curaçao Museum (positioned at Van Leeuwenhoekstraat, Willemstad) is internet hosting a brand new exhibition known as “De Aprilmoorden” [The April Murders] by Curaçaoan artist Avantia Damberg from April 20 to June 15, 2022. Right here is the transcript in English of a quick documentary video in Dutch in regards to the exhibition, directed by Alexandra Jansse (Xela Movies).
Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW-cqllVb1g. Transcription, translation and enhancing for readability by Peter Jordens.
[0:14 on the video’s clock] The ultimate set [of vases] is prepared. I’m going to take them out now. I’ve made twenty-one; fifteen are for the exhibition. They’re nonetheless fairly heat.
[0:29] I did an artisan residency right here in Leeuwarden, Friesland [The Netherlands], the place I realized to color on the vases. Every vase type is from a selected dynasty. Primarily, I needed to current an irony: a horrific occasion illustrated on one thing stunning. It’s a few group of Chinese language individuals from Rotterdam [The Netherlands] who had been dropped at Curaçao as contract laborers through the . . . from the Nineteen Thirties onwards, to work on the Shell oil refinery. [Translator’s note: These imported Chinese seamen enabled, as stokers below deck, the transport of crude oil from Venezuela to the oil refineries in Aruba and Curaçao, where the oil would be processed into the fuel that was crucial to the Allied Forces during World War II.] They had been stokers. It may rise up to 55 levels Celsius [131 degrees Fahrenheit] within the engine rooms of the tankers. To do that work, they smoked opium; they had been hooked on opium. It was really a type of slavery too, as a result of the labor was brutal they usually had been the one ones who would put up with it.
[1:33] […] oil, transported from Maracaibo, Venezuela, however throughout World Conflict II, the Germans with their U-boats [submarines] … began to torpedo the tankers and that was the final straw for the stokers. They went on strike, however as a result of their work was so important, due to the struggle, they had been imprisoned in a army camp in Suffisant [Curaçao].
[2:09] Putting 400 individuals in a single barracks ― there have been no correct sanitary services, there was no meals ― makes for an explosive scenario. In some unspecified time in the future they subsequently determined to separate them up, however that’s when one thing went amiss, after which they merely opened hearth upon the Chinese language males. Forty-four of the Chinese language laborers had been injured, and fifteen died. And now I’m paying tribute to these fifteen deceased. I’m doing that for Curaçao, but additionally in The Netherlands, so that individuals will know the story.
[2:49] Nicely, right here they’re now, my fifteen vases being premiered in Oldeberkoop [The Netherlands] as a part of the Open Stal artwork route. Afterwards, they’ll journey to Curaçao.
[3:12] I’ve simply returned from The Netherlands and the vases too have arrived in Curaçao. I’m going to exhibit them in Het Curaçaosch Museum. I’ll have a solo exhibition there. On the opening day, the vases may even … be a part of the memorial ceremony for the fifteen Chinese language laborers on the Kolebra Bèrdè cemetery. [Translator’s note: memorials have been held annually for the fifteen deceased Chinese laborers since approximately 2003, and in 2012, the government of Curaçao proclaimed April 20 as National Memorial Day for the April 1942 Murders.] As a substitute of [the usual] garlands, flowers can be positioned within the vases on high of the graves. They’re porcelain vases, so they’re fragile, but additionally very sturdy; [they] final a really very long time. On this method, then, this specific piece of historical past will develop into part of Curaçao’s heritage. That provides me a variety of satisfaction and power. [4:02]
Go to Avantia Damberg’s webpage http://www.avantiadamberg.com/home-portfolio for a extra detailed description in English of the historic background to the exhibition. For extra in regards to the artist, see http://www.avantiadamberg.com/bio-resume, https://www.instagram.com/avantiadambergartist and http://www.fb.com/avantiadamberg.
The exhibition:
De aprilmoorden [The April Murders]
Avantia Damberg
April 20 – June 15, 2022
Het Curaçaosch Museum, Van Leeuwenhoekstraat, Willemstad, Curaçao
The above exhibition poster is from the Instagram pages of Avantia Damberg and Het Curaçaosch Museum.