IMAGE REPORT NEW WALK WAYS IN NEW BELL

On Friday 27 May, Kamiel Verschuren, together with Lucas Grandin, finished their days of hard work on the New Walk Ways in New Bell project. A SUD2010 project much appreciated by the people living in New Bell, including the 'chef', who took it upon him to make sure that people will gain more consciousness on how to deal with the garbage, in order to keep the sewer - and the drinking water - from being more and more poluted.

Click here for more information on the project

In clean sewers, the water can run freely causing less water to remain in the quarter. As a direct consequence of this less muskito's - causing Malaria - will choose the quarter as their habitat.
A second big advantage of sewers no longer clutted by garbage, is that the dirt and water that is poisened by plastic, will no longer enter the clean water sources during the rain season, when the dirty water starts moving through the streets and enters the clean sources.

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:

New Walk Ways for New Bell

Next week, Xandra Nibbeling and Kamiel Verschuren accompanied by Lucas Grandin, will travel to Douala to continue working on New Walk Ways for New Bell, Verschuren's work in the township of New Bell, where they will be working with Patrick and his team on these new walkways on the open sewer system. Grandin will also be doing some maintanance on the Jardin Sonore in Bonamouti.

This open system is not only found in this quarter, but throughout the city of Douala. Now that the rain season is approaching, the clugged sewer system will be causing more and more problems, causing polution of the clean drinking water. Read an earlier post on this huge problem here.

The project will not only be of help to the people directly involved (i.e. the inhabitants of the streets where we will work), but is above all intended to create an awareness of one's own responsibility in how to deal with the circumstances in which we live in a way that goes beyond the individual. 
More information on New Walk Ways for New Bell.

Besides working on this project - supported by FondsBKVB -  the Ars&Urbis symposium organized by Doual'art on 24-26 May, will be attended, aiming to look forward to the next Salon Urbain de Douala, to be held in 2013.

Keep an eye on the next post!

Art in the city

Over the past couple of days during the SUD2010, new art pieces have been inaugurated and presented to the public and the people of Douala in different parts of the city. A selection:

Le Jardin Sonore - Lucas Grandin (FR) in Bonamouti

Diving in Deep - Ties Ten Bosch (NL) in Ndogpassi

La Colonne Pascale - Pascale Marthine Tayou (CAM) in New Bell

New Walk Ways in New Bell - Kamiel Verschuren (NL) in New Bell

Ghorfa #7 - Younès Rahmoun (MOR) in the mangrove

New Walk Ways for New Bell – Faces of Water

Tuesday, 30 November, Kamiel Verschuren started the project New Walk Ways in New Bell – Faces of Water in Douala. The idea for this project came to his mind during a visit to the quarter New Bell in February 2010.

In New Bell and other quarters of Douala, the sewers alongside the streets are completely open and therefore filled with wandering garbage from the streets. The covers on the open sewers, whether they are made from wooden planks or concrete elements, have often been taken away, burned as fuel wood, or are just damaged by usage. They have not been replaced. In the rainy season, this non-functioning draining system often causes huge floods, and affects public health seriously. In the rainy season, the garbage that causes the sewer system to be clogged, rises together with the water level, allowing the water from the sewers to spread into the streets and into the houses, and allowing the water to mix with the fresh water resources.

On the New Walk Ways, large scale text fragments will be made, using black spray paint. To allow the rain to enter the sewer system but to prevent the garbage from entering it, small holes are drilled in the planks re-writing the texts fragments and making them durable. The collection of text fragments relate to the different Faces of Water, to its qualities as a substance, solid, liquid or gas, to its movement, to its reflective nature and its ability to follow any shape that contains it and still be of immense force.
Kamiel Verschuren will re-install about 1 kilometer of coverage on the open sewer system. The intention is not to make a sculpture or artistic object in front of someone’s doorstep, but to address the sense of collectivity in this neighborhood. This week, the first 100 meters of the new walk ways will be finished. In 2011, the next 900 meters will be made.

The work is realized with the help of four young people living in the neighborhood. Every now and then, passers-by spontaneously stop to help or just to have a very thorough look at the work. On the first day of work, many people living in the neighborhood expressed their appreciation. They felt the necessity of the new walk ways very strongly. “L’eau, c’est le sanité”, as an old lady commented: water is sanitation. Still people were throwing in garbage while the work on the system was in progress. For mentality to change, one needs more time and effort, but it is hoped this is a start in changing the way of thinking about water in the city. The expectation is that after some time people will start to feel their responsibility and will take control over their own conditions and act individually as well as collectively to improve their situation.

New Walk Ways in New Bell will be presented in New Bell during the SUD2010, on Thursday 9 December.

On the same day, the work of artists who also have been working in New Bell will be presented, i.e. Pascale Marthine Tayou, Loris Cecchini, Hervé Yamguen, Ato Malinda, and Tracey Rose.

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

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.