Finding New Places for New Walk Ways in New Bell

The visit we are paying to Douala this week has two aims. One is to continue on Kamiel Verschuren's project New Walk Ways in New Bell. The other is to attend and present during the Ars&Urbis, to be held from 24 to 26 May. On the first day after our arrival, we started looking for new spots for the New Walk Ways. A photo impression:

Le Jardin Sonore de Bonamouti

“An elevated garden growing at the sound of falling water. A water recovery system, a garden contructed with the local biotope, a free social meeting space, an architecture to reflect on the element of water and its cultural and social resonances.” With this words French artist, Lucas Grandin, describes the project Le Jardin Sonore de Bonamouti made within the framework of the Salon Urbain de Douala (SUD), a tri-annual festival for public art designed and organized by Doual’art, center for contemporary art in Douala, Cameroon, in cooperation with ICU art projects.

At each triennial, a theme is selected to provide a framework for the artistic interventions and for this year’s SUD the guiding topic was ‘water’. Having grown from a couple of small villages on the banks of the Wouri river, Douala has always had an important relationship with water. Based on this, Grandin’s Jardin Sonore holds a direct relation to the city’s origins and present conditions : “this structure was made to reveal the why of the city of Douala: a water city where you can’t see or feel the water anywhere. Douala is a city where it rains in one hour what it rains in my country in one year, and where the rain is never recovered. ” Hence, through this structure the artist intends to offer the community a free meeting place in Bonamouti where people can regain conscience of the importance of water in their lives, “to give back Douala its right to water”. This is a space where people can go “to rest with the water’s melody, to smell the flowers, to see the Wouri river and its original mangrove, to feel the wind of nature... a new social area to talk, to plant, to listen, to re-create new inter-generational communication through the garden.”


Read more on Arts Collaboratory.org

Visiting Program: the visitors

The SUD2010 is approaching rapidly and the list of people who have confirmed their visit to the SUD2010 in Douala, Cameroon, by invitation of Doual’art and ICU art projects is growing. The following people have comfirmed their stay:

• Lard Buurman, photographer (the Netherlands) 
• Ingrid Commandeur, editor/art critic/publisher (the Netherlands) (couldn't make it eventually)
• Jan Jongert, architect, 2010 architecten (the Netherlands) 
• Kaleb de Groot, artist (the Netherlands)
• Bart-Jan Hooft, architect, RAW foundation (South Africa / the Netherlands)
• Geert Hutsebaut, artist/designer (Belgium/the Netherlands) 
• Hans Kennepohl, journalist/philosopher (the Netherlands) 
• Arie van Ziel, 2010 architecten (the Netherlands) 
• Berend van der Lans, editor ArchiAfrika (the Netherlands)
• Calanne Moroney, architect, RAW foundation (Ireland/the Netherlands) 
• Xandra Nibbeling, communications manager and cultural producer (the Netherlands)
• Arno van Roosmalen, director Stroom (the Netherlands)
• Wim Schepens, documentary maker/VPRO (the Netherlands) 
• Kamiel Verschuren, artist (the Netherlands)

all about SUD 2010: visiting program Doual’art

9 – 17 June 2010 Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague

The visiting program All about SUD2010 in June 2010 was an effective and enjoyable week of hard work. A lot of meetings and conversations in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and The Hague brought us steps closer to the realization of the SUD2010.

The week started on Wednesday 9th of June in Brussels where Marilyn and Didier attended the opening of GEO-graphics at BOZAR Brussels, in which Doual’art participated. The following day, after the arrival of Paulin Tchuenbou, Lucas Grandin, Marilyn and Didier in Rotterdam, everybody had the opportunity to settle in, and Ties Ten Bosch – the first Dutch official artist-in-residence to be sent out by the Fonds BKVB to Douala – got to meet his Cameroonian hosts to be. Lucas Grandin, from France, showed his Jardin Sonore Ambulant, which he built earlier in April, a mini-model of the Jardin Sonore he had built in Douala in February 2010.

Friday
On Friday, the actual visits to the various institutions started. First, we visited the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) where we had an inspiring conversation with Fanny Smelik, to be followed by the presentation in TENT., where RAW foundation was invited as a guest speaker because of the possibility to rebuild the pavilion of Doual’art into a residency, in a sustainable way. Christine Eyene – curator and journalist, born in Paris from Cameroonian parents and now living and working in London – was also present. She and other the guests, joined us after the presentation for an informal welcoming diner at B.a.d foundation.

For the presentation in TENT., the people from TENT. had kindly prepared the space for the presentation, and after they had welcomed all visitors and guests, Marilyn presentend Doual’art and the aims of SUD2010. She explained the necessity of the SUD for the city of Douala, and the importance of the theme Water. Also, she introduced all artists that will be taking part in the SUD2010.

The weekend
In the weekend we spent a lot of time working on the SUD; preparing the applications, working on the planning, preparing the visiting program for the SUD2010, et cetera. Besides this serious work, there was time for some ‘fun work’, like visiting 2012 Architects, Jan Jongert and Iris de Kievit, where Christine de Baan (director of Dutch DFA) passed by to join us and meet Marilyn. We also visited the Maasvlakte 1 & 2 and the Rotterdam Waterfront to see the transformation of the Rotterdam riverside from harbor to service economy.

The last days
On Monday, we went to The Hague to visit Hivos and the Embassy of Cameroon. In Rotterdam we visited George Brugmans, director of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (during the Netherlands’ first football match in the World Championship – against Denmark, Cameroon would follow later).
Tuesday 15th of June was reserved for a visit to Amsterdam, with meetings at the Fonds BKVB, the Prins Claus Fund, the Mondriaan foundation, and Raw Foundation.

After the last meeting, everyone went home one by one. Marilyn went first to Paris, Christine to London, Paulin and Didier went directly to Douala, and Lucas to France. On Thursday 17th of June, Kamiel Verschuren of ICU art projects and Ties Ten Bosch left for Douala for the Ars&Urbis 2010 and for Ties’ first part of his residency in Douala.

11 June: Reception and Presentation Doual’art in TENT. Rotterdam

All about SUD 2010

Friday 11 June, at 5 PM in the auditorium of TENT./Witte de With, center for contemporary art, in Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam.

Doual'art (www.doualart.org)

Doual'art will present the ambitions and projects for the SUD, Salon Urbain de Douala 2010, which is a tri-annual, urban international art manifestation in the quarters of Douala, the biggest port in western Africa. Topic of the SUD is aimed at the search for concrete urban problems and the cooperation between artists, communities, architects, urbanists, writers, designers, and curators. The theme of this year’s SUD is "water in context of the city" which has been the subject of preparatory research over the past three years.

RAW foundation (www.rawprojects.org)

The presentation of Doual'art is followed by a guest presentation by RAW foundation. In a wider collaboration named RAW Studios, the architects Calanne Moroney and Bart-Jan Hooft have been working in South Africa, investigating and experimenting on new ways of building. They will show some of their projects and experiments.

All About SUD was made possible with the support of Fonds BKVB, Mondriaan foundation, and TENT.CBK