Miguel Keerveld
2021

Alakondre-fasi is known as performing ambiguity in Suriname. This model of identification is contextualized through artistic research as framework for creative production. This is performed in relation to art therapy, to explore social relations based on cultural diversity. To investigate Suriname’s historical relation with the Netherlands, the project ‘ALAKONDRE: A Space in Time’ sees alakondre-fasi as entanglement of counseling and curatorial producing.

This case study takes place at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and relates to alternative forms of staging art in the context of Suriname. Simultaneously, the research explores visual culture as non-discursive discourse related to cultural diversity. Based on the diverse cultural aspects of Suriname, a model of versatility is of importance for translation in the local multilingual and multicultural composition. The study combines traditional and modern approaches, connecting a plurality of ancestral knowledge systems through contemporary art; e.g., conversations based on artistic presentations and reflections of these art manifestations. In pursuit of a discourse on the role and functioning of ‘identity’, alakondre-fasi also provides temporal spatiality for the individual and the communal to confront memories of trauma and taboo. While exploring care within socio-political and cultural context, this study investigates performative gestures that entangle the past, the present and the future as event that symbolically disassembles space of power to reassemble space of strength. As a way of artistic research, staging is used to translate questions about diversity, inclusion, and identification in Suriname.

Miguel E. Keerveld (Suriname, 1982) has staged over 20 manifestations and interventions. To challenge ideas of colonization and representation, he intersects activism, social practice, artistic research, and creative production. While participating in artistic research at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (The Netherlands), Miguel is also curator-in-residence at Readytex Art Gallery in Paramaribo (Suriname). He has participated in several residencies in Latin America and have won different prizes and mentions.