With the multi-year manifestation On the Other Side of Reality, TENT stepped outside its own walls to participate in the Rotterdam Summer Carnival with assignments for Rotterdam makers. The aim was to stretch its own boundaries and frames of reference, and to connect with the Afro-Caribbean diaspora culture in the city. This first edition included a procession by fashion designer Marga Weimans and a youth project by artist Mette Sterre.
The Rotterdam Summer Carnival was first organised in the 80s as an equivalent of the Caribbean Carnival. It grew into one of the largest cultural events in the Netherlands. The Summer Carnival has a cultural background that is strongly linked to the colonial past and the migration history of the Netherlands. With 'On the Other Side of Reality', TENT invited Rotterdam makers to visualise their vision of the cultural and political significance of the Caribbean Carnival in a float for the street parade.
After Marga Weimans, commissions to artists followed Mette Sterre, Klaar van der Lippe & Bart Stuart and choreographer Alida Dors.
Street parade and exhibition with Marga Weimans
Weimans' project was driven by her Surinamese background and her views on the city dweller as an 'agent of change'. Inspired by carnival as a moment in which the norm is abandoned and boundaries temporarily blur, Weimans designed a float and procession around the idea of transformation.
Dressed in costumes and enormous headdresses, a group of forty young dancers depicted a transformation process. The headdresses changed from strict architectural frames to exuberant, sensual attributes. The performers thus symbolically transformed from framed to liberated, from duty to passion, from uniform to versatile.
Although the street parade of July 25 was canceled due to bad weather conditions, the program in TENT went ahead. Weimans' monumental installation opened with a spectacular performance with dancers, models and a brass band. The performance was continued at Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Collaboration
Weimans worked closely with the composer in developing her project Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Vogue choreographer Amber Vineyard (House of Vineyard/HipHopHuis).
Youth project with Mette Sterre
Parallel to the exhibition, artist Mette Sterre organized a youth project with TENT under the title The End of Normal. During the summer, a group of 12 talented young people worked with her and tutors on their own street parade for the festival Art in the Witte de Withkwartier in September. Their workspace in TENT, with costumes from Sterre's performances and plays, was also open to the public.
Symposium
A closing symposium explored the cultural and political implications of the connection between contemporary art and carnival. How relevant is Caribbean carnival as an expression of protest or otherness in the contemporary city?
This project was an initiative of TENT curator Jesse van Oosten, with substantive support from Charl Landvreugd.
This project was generously supported by Stichting DOEN, VSB Fonds and Rotterdam Festivals. The parade was organised in collaboration with Ducos Productions, Stichting Zomercarnaval Nederland and HipHopHuis Rotterdam.