(Mami Wata, water spirit)
Yesterday, the 6th of December, the first guests of the ICU visiting program to Doual'art and the SUD2010, left the SUD and Douala. Jan Jongert and Arie van Ziel from 2012Architects have had a very fruitful stay in the city of Douala, and hopefully their Douala Cyclifier proposal will be given the opportunity for a follow-up. Shortly before the first guests left, one of the last guests of ICU visiting program arrived. Wim Schepens had the luck to arrive in the middle of the Dutch Party or, as it was called: La Soirée Hollandaise.
Wim Schepens is director and commissioning editor at VPRO television, a media company in which content takes priority. He made many documentaries and worked on the cross-media project Urban Century, a co-operation of VPRO with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) in 2009. In his work for the VPRO Wim Schepens’ interest in urbanity plays an important role. He was invited to the SUD2010 to do research on the possibility of making a documentary on Douala, Doual'art and/or the SUD, in perspective of the development of the SUD 2013 and the VPRO project Urban Century, part 2 (2012).
For this weblog Wim Schepens’ wrote down his first impressions:
“Yesterday, I arrived in Douala. Strange how the continent immediately strikes you: Different colours, different smells, and different pace. And don’t stick to your old habits of being strict and punctual. Forget about all that, life is having its own tempo and pace around here. Don’t get angry when ten o’ clock is not ten o’clock.
But let’s not complain, we hardly have any reason to! To begin with, we attended a debate about the mythical culture of the water gods here in Douala. It is something very serious and open for debate. One immediately understands that myths, gods but also witchcraft and the spells that are made are very important to the way live goes on here in Douala.
So far my first impressions after flying in only yesterday evening.”
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