Grenzeloze Nieuwsgierigheid

Presentation by: Claudia Fontes
Date: 31 March 2008

My relation with this country started 12 years ago, as an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Since then, I have been involved in projects of international cultural exchange with the Dutch cooperation and development sector under different roles: as an artist, a curator, an organiser, a consultant and a friend.

Now I am here to answer one simple question that the organisers asked us: what inspires me about cultural exchange.

At the moment I’m drafting the analysis and the conclusions of the evaluation of the Arts & Culture programme of Hivos in Central America for the period 2002-2006, a research my colleague evaluator Ricardo Wilson-Grau and I have been busy with for the last 8 months.

As an artist, I was in the very interesting position of looking for evidence to prove Hivos’ theory of development for the arts and culture sector: instrumentalisation of arts should be resisted if you want to achieve cultural and artistic development, and through it, social development as a whole.

I was highly motivated to take this commission. In the last 10 years, I have experienced an increasing demand for the instrumentalisation of the arts (and the artists) from every flank, regardless of where you are based.
More and more, it seems art has to prove that it is a reliable social investment that has the magical power of ending poverty, corruption, human rights abuse, pollution, injustice, inequality of gender, illiteracy, drug abuse, war in Irak… you name it! : every social and political karma actually created by the abusive and predatorial behaviour of other sectors in society, not by the arts sector.

In the privileged parts of the world, we artists have one other choice: if you don’t feel like becoming the magician of social transformation, then brand yourself; if you are an artist run organisation, behave like a corporation; think how you can liaise with property developers and get on with it; get a sponsor and play the rules, don’t be silly!

But for artists in underprivileged contexts, where you have to renegotiate with reality the fact that you are an artist on a daily basis, the message is even more schizophrenic. An artist in Nicaragua explained to me the following: “In order to get their support, international cooperation agencies demand us to become self-sustainable and market our artwork as profitable products in a context which is oblivious to art in the first place, and where art is hardly a commodity… On the top of that, and at the same time, they remind us to be innovative, risky, socially sensitive, left-wing oriented, and stand for political issues which undermine the establishment…”

The absurdity of this imposition doubles when the demand is put on the independent sector, and especially on artist led culture, whose virtues are precisely to be unpredictable, creative, mobile, flexible, innovative and diverse.

The biggest risk of all isn’t failing to achieve social transformation, but, even worse, ending up with a whole generation of very cynical artists, who couldn’t care less about social welfare, teenagers at risk, or the isolation of rural populations, but have learnt how to fill in forms complying with a social interest angle in order to get the only funds available. This undoubtedly undermines the quality of their art (because the artists’ motivation is fund-driven and not driven by genuine desire towards each other), and it actually might achieve the effect opposite to the one expected, by spreading a culture of mediocrity.

What is here at stake is the integrity of the artist. So, what inspired me lately? A group of artists who have integrity in spades:
In Belize, Hivos used to have a very stubborn counterpart: Stonetree Records, an independent label of Belizean music. They wouldn’t compromise the quality of their art no matter what. It took them 7 years to come out with two albums: Wátina and Umalali. It took them so long, because Iván Durán, who is the producer of both albums and responsible for Stonetree Records, felt he would betray his fellow artists if he wasn’t coming out with the best possible output.

Hivos and Stonetree Records had something in common: achieving artistic quality was the priority for both of them. Years of research, hundred of field recordings, months and months of rehearsals, followed by re-recordings and redefinitions of the outputs, led to an incredible success for Wátina when it was finally released and promoted in a tour around México, North America and Europe in 2007:
Wátina got enthusiastic reviews in the main specialized press in France, Spain, Germany, UK and USA, from Rolling Stone Magazine, to El País in Spain, to the Observer in UK.
The album became number 1 in the World Music Chart in Europe.
It won the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards.
Iván Durán and Andy Palacio, the leader singer, received the Womex Award in 2007, the most important award for World music in the world.
Wátina was considered one of “The 1000 albums you must hear to before you die”, by The Guardian, next to Pink Floyd, The Police, Charlie Parker… And those are just the artists under letter “P”...


The international impact the album had was also very important locally.
Wátina is an album of contemporary Garifuna music by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. The Garifuna is a unique culture under risk of disappearing. Those seven years of research I mentioned before, involved a huge effort to recover, study and recreate the traditional musical roots of the Garinagu from a contemporary point of view.

In his favourite song “Ámuñegü”, (In times to come), Andy Palacio warns and advises the members of his community about who will pass on the Garifuna heritage, language and traditions once his generation is gone.
Tragically, Andy passed away last January, all of a sudden, at the age of 47.

Significantly, a group of Garifuna women, who had joined the Garifuna collective world tour in 2007, have stood up and will carry on his amazing and transforming journey with Umalali, (“Voice” in Garifuna).
Women are a vital piece in the Garifuna cultural ecosystem, as they are the ones transmitting the language and values of their culture to the children; they are also the ones who create new songs while collectively baking the Garinagu’s staple food, the cassava bread.

See: "Umalali: Songs of Garifuna Women" at Youtube.

The integrity of these artists, who wouldn’t submit to any pressure or conditions against their creative process and their own motivations and goals, has led to an amazing transformation.
Garifuna culture has not only now a place in the world, and it’s on its way to securing its survival, but they also have transformed our own place in the world, confronting us with their values through their music.

175 years ago, Garinagu’s ancestors led their people to safe land in Belize when they were abused by the British and kicked out from their own territory in St Vincent’s island. The Garinagu owe their ancestors this sense of determination and celebrate it through music. And now they are sharing it with us, teaching a lesson of artistic integrity; the same integrity that Hivos holds to in a world where the trend for instrumentalising each other increases day by day.

We only can be grateful to them both, and hope their example inspires us all in times to come.

Thank you very much.


Claudia Fontes
Rotterdam, 31st March 2008