Siudadanos

Siudadanos was a commissioned work for the exhibition called Kamarado at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. Two roundly curved film screens in front of each other carry a soundscape in the middle coming from above, this work is characterized by a multitude of voices and sounds like the sea, the wind, by spoken word, birds singing and even dogs barking. Siudadanos means citizens in Papiamento, and it relates to the concept of comrade as it is echoed in the former Netherlands Antilles. Arrindell explains that with the word Siudadanos we refer to people who fight for social justice, for example trade unions and writers. Using the word is part of the struggle for justice. It means partner or brother. By using the term, we become part of the same movement for social justice and we know that we can count on each other because we stand for the same. After the abolition of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, people in Sint Maarten, where I  recorded Siudadanos, struggle in the words of Guadeloupe, “to create a sense of national unity, an open unity based on the recognition of the ever-changing plurality of the population of the islands. ” I presented Siudadanos on two large, semicircular, opposite screens. The visitor was able to enter the installation through a narrow opening to be embraced by the projections. On the screens, images of plants were shown in close-up and accompanied by the sounds of birds, insects and the voice of Arrindell and other voices.