Summer Carnival Parade with Mette Sterre, Klaar van der Lippe & Bart Stuart

This artistic contribution to Rotterdam’s Summer Carnival explored the cultural significance of the Caribbean carnival tradition. In the open studio of the exhibition All You Can Art by the Curaçaoan art platform Instituto Buena Bista at the Kunsthal, the artists worked with the youngsters from the IBB Summer School to create the costumes and float. The creative process was a public matter: anyone was welcome to participate in the discussions, thinking, and making. This approach continues the carnival tradition, which is not only a moment for celebration and new encounters, but also an art form centred around a collective creative process.

Human Nature
Together with Mette Sterre, the participants developed costumes referencing Curaçao’s colonial history. They imagined plant creatures that could have developed if Dutch colonisers and the plantation economy would not have interfered. Klaar van der Lippe & Bart Stuart designed costumes that visualised a collective body. Both suggested that human nature could have evolved differently. Accompanied by the drums of brass band DreamTeam, the two groups met around and on the fleet, forming a spectacular tableau vivant of 45 performers.

TENT and Rotterdam’s Summer Carnival
Between 2015-2017, TENT participated in the Summer Carnival Street Parade under the overall title ‘On the Other Side of Reality’. With three commissions to Rotterdam-based artists, TENT wanted to step outside its walls and stretch its frames of reference, connecting with the Afro-Caribbean diaspora culture that is part of Rotterdam. The other editions were created by fashion designer Marga Weimans and choreographer Alida Dors.

On the Other Side of Reality was an initiative by TENT curator Jesse van Oosten.

This project was generously supported by The Art of Impact and Rotterdam Festivals. The parade was organised in collaboration with Ducos Productions.