Some time ago, on one of the last summer days,
i went to Leiden to see Open Air Archive
by South African artist Andries Botha (1952) for
study and to write a short article about it
for Villa La Repubblica. He made the work in 2000-2001
for the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (State Museum for Ethnography)
to reflect on its collection. During a ‘safari’
in The Netherlands he collected small items, cast them
in aluminium and presented them outside the museum as
ethnographic objects with more or less science based explanatory
texts which try to delve into the Dutch psyche.
The texts are in Afrikaans, an African language derived
from Dutch, which to Dutch visitors has a special
significance. It is strange for Dutch visitors to be
taught about their own tribal characteristics in Afrikaans.
To read some of the texts (and to see some more pictures)
see the article on the Villa La Repubblica blog (in Dutch).
For here on the Next Door blog
i made a choice of the objects as they
are presented by Botha. Look at them and
think about how Dutch they are. And
beware of the dog shit!
[Click on the pictures to enlarge.]
Bertus Pieters
Villa Next Door 