Beeldbepalers: Raquel van Haver

Raquel van Haver, one of the most celebrated artists in the Netherlands, works and lives in a diverse community in the South-East of Amsterdam, but spends long periods abroad. She gathers source material in both West Africa and South America. Whilst researching stories, images and histories, she tries to get a concrete image of the themes she addresses in her artistic practice – such as identity, spirituality, migration and transnationality.

For a new episode in the programme series Beeldbepalers, Raquel van Haver invites two special guests whom she met during her travels: Samaita, a shaman from Zimbabwe and one of the founders of the Dzimbanhete Arts and Culture Centre in the outskirts of Harare. And Sindra Tatiana Gonzalez, a famous weaver from the Wayuu community in La Guajira, Colombia.

Together with curators Shaheen Merali and Stefannia Doria, the panel explores the need for storytelling to preserve cultural traditions and the relationship between art, crafts, and spirituality.

Programme schedule

14.00 – 15.00 | Lecture Shaheen Merali

Tanzanian-born curator, artist and writer Shaheen Merali will give an introductory lecture about the central theme of the programme: the need to tell narratives through different artistic and cultural practices.

Merali’s artistic own practice started around personal, social and political practices. One of the first media he used was batik, what enabled him to question the conventional distinction between art and craft. He curated more than 20 exhibitions such as The Black Atlantic: Travelling Cultures, Counter-Histories, Networked Identities (2004) and the first national Ugandan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2022). He is co-founder of Panchayat Arts Education Resource Unit in London, an archive that specifically addresses the needs and issues of non-European artists and cultural producers.

15.30 – 16.45 | Sindra Tatiana Gonzalez & Stefannia Doria: Storytelling through weaving in the Wayuu culture

Sindra Tatiana Gonzalez is a weaver by cultural heritage, and a leader with entrepreneurial spirit in La Guajira, a peninsula in Northern Colombia. Traditional weaving is one of the main pillars of their rich culture and plays a role in various activities, from meetings to funeral rites. Weaving and knitting are not only used to preserve their cultural heritage, but also to express feelings and to interpret the world around them.

Together with Colombian curator Stefannia Doria, Sindra share this rich cultural tradition with the audience.

17.15 – 18.45 | Workshop by Samaita

Jonathan Dube, otherwise known as Samaita, is a Zimbabwean shaman from the Shona tradition whose work centers around preserving and teaching the indigenous healing knowledge of his Ancestors. He is the co-founder and cultural director of the Dzimbanhete Arts and Culture Centre, at the outskirts of Harare. The centre is designed to support and promote arts and African culture. They host all sorts of artists from all over the world who are interested in immersing themselves in the traditional African way of life as a route to creativity and healing.

19.30 – 20.30 | Roundtable with Raquel van Haver, Shaheen Merali, Samaita, Sindra Tatiana Gonzalez & Stefannia Doria

All participants guests will reflect at each other artistic and cultural practices. What do they have in common? What are the relations between art, craft and spirituality? And how do their activities relate to the dominant Western-European art tradition?

This programme is made possible by Mondriaan Fonds