u kunt me nog meer vertellen
When Dutch people say ‘U kunt me nog meer vertellen’ they do not just give you permission to carry on talking, they hint at the understanding that what you are telling is not wholly believable or correct, but please continue because it is fun hearing your story.
This phrase turned out to be the perfect working title for my new project, in which I am researching the local history of the town of Venray and linking it to major international narratives through my own associations and interests.
Odapark Art Centre, aware of my research-based approach, offered me the opportunity in early 2024 to develop a work of art that would engage with their location and the surrounding area. Following a number of visits and discussions with staff, volunteers and passers-by, I decided to delve into local history and conduct archival research in Venray, Nijmegen and Amsterdam.
Based on this research, which lasted almost two years, I chose five topics: Carmine Riozzi’s Electro Imperator Bioscope which visited the Venray fair for more than thirty years. The air balloon that left Paris during the French-German war of 1870 and avoided landing in Germany by dropping its anchor on the frozen heath in Venray. The third topic is alcohol based on a 40 minute abolitionist speech by Father Coelestinus delivered on occasion of the seventh Limburg Catholic Days in Venray in 1905. The 4th theme is local walking associations and the Great Sheep Company, whose shepherds walked the route from Venray to Paris with their flocks in two weeks for more than a century. The series is concluded by the Holy Childhood processions with their miniature popes, priests, nuns and papal zouave soldiers.
Working with these themes I was able to weave a web in which immigration, emigration, strangers and locals, colonialism and folk customs interconnect. The installation with archival material, costumes, maquettes, my own artwork and handmade copies of archival originals and reconstructions of lost materials was shown at Odapark and more specifically in the tea house of the Ursuline sisters.
