The exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presents a series of murals that emerge from the artist’s experiences with marginalized communities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Contemporary And América Latina (C&AL) visited the exhibition.
Raquel van Haver in Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Derecha: Hurry, Hurry, has no Glory... The Game is to Have No Fear, 2018. Collage. Left: On the Path of a King. 2018. Collage.
Installation view of Spirits of the Soil, Raquel van Haver, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2018
Raquel van Haver, Dem Smoke and Blaze under Royal Regime, 2018.
Raquel van Haver, A Shine of a Deity L´enyin ise aye lo Ku, 2018. Collage in photo.
Raquel van Haver, Reason for Being, 2018.
Raquel van Haver, Change the Rhythm of the Dancehall… It´s Still the Same Groove, 2018.
Raquel van Haver, Life Never Sweet Like a Chocolate Vainilla, 2018.
Raquel van Haver, One Drop… You Heart Might Skip a Beat for Many Reasons, 2018.
Raquel van Haver, awarded in 2018 with the Royal Dutch Prize for modern painting, refers to her work as “strong” paintings that portray people on the edge of society. This is reflected in the exhibition Spirits of the Soil at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Visitors are greeted by a first room with a series of fotocollages made by the artist in 2017 for the Lagos Festival, invited by the African Artists Foundation. During this trip, van Haver, born in Colombia, came in contact with the marginalized communities of the great urban centers of the region, collecting stories and images. Back in Amsterdam, this material, along with other experiences in large urban centers in the Caribbean and Latin America, was the basis for the new series of paintings Spirits of the Soil. Through a combination of different materials, the large-scale works that make up the exhibition reveal Van Haver’s imaginary, marked not only by Europe, but also by the art of “other” regions and “other” stories.
The exhibition Spirits of the Soil is accompanied by the publication of an essay by Azu Nwagbogu, executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of African Contemporary Art in Cape Town, South Africa, and a prologue by Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen, curator of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Raquel van Haver’s Spirits of the Soil can be visited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam until April 7, 2019.
Stedelijk Museum Museumplein 10 Amsterdam
More information in C&AL
Raquel van Haver: Spirits of the Soil, Stedelijk Museum
Text and photos of Marie-Louise Stille, cultural manager and collaborator of C & AL in Berlin and Amsterdam
Translation from Spanish by Hernán D. Caro
Raquel van Haver, A Shine of a Deity L´enyin ise aye lo Ku, 2018. Collage in photo
ES
PT