Thursday, December 9, 2010

Club Touche


Finally it opened, Suriname's hottest discotheque during the 80's. Club Touche. The dark brown building of before has changed into a modern metallic cube, adapted to our view in 2010. The red carpet was out, a small band playing at the front door. And there i stepped into the new Touche, shaking hands with the owner and most experienced event entrepeneur in Suriname, Baldew, known by everyone as Bally. And although it is totally restyled.. the walls metallic , steel frames.. as i come insight all the Touche vibes are there. On solid ground.. the music, the talks, the loves, the looks, the dates. The place where so many loves started..and some great many times.. also ended! Even the latin room somewhat seemed to throw me back in time with the music and the people sitting around a new styled bar. Yet, still i have no need to stay 'in this smaller latin 30+ dance area, although now my age would allow me too!

As I walk into the ground floor dancing area I see huge walls, the bar on my right hand, a spacious dance floor and a Dj who can be seen. He has his own 'lightened up' space. Bally totally recognizes this new DJ role of the millennium , being part of the scene, being the one who makes the scene. The high wall on my left side is totally transformed into a screen, showing pictures of the guests and video clips. A second good adaptation of Bally. We live in the time of exposure, with facebook, twitter, partypix. People want to be seen, want to expose themselves to the world. In front of the camera and video suddenly people open up, sometimes a kind of way out for not having the ability to socialize. Bally deals with a professional photography company, as can be seen on the wall, where guests, who just came in can see themselves: huge and exposed.

The bar is bizzy as always, guys in black pick up glasses from the nice stand alone tables. I walk around the dancefloor, great music of nowadays, nobody dancing. When the 80's music starts, the dancefloor comes alive. The lights are one on the most sophisticated. The dancing floor lightens up in soft blue light... the crowd almost seems to be part of a huge concert. The marmer used for the podium on the left, taking the whole lenght of the wall, makes the place much bigger, reflecting the wall visions. The place is crowded... and at twelve, when officially the new discotheque announces it's rebirth, the floor is invisible, body's, feet, heads , arms moving with smyling faces into the great light.

Touche hits the floor, Bally surely knows his country and its people. Suriname seems to be the country to bounce back, no matter what happened, no matter what people did or do, and in this case, no matter how long doors have been closed. This country makes place to get back into drive as nothing ever happened. New clothes, new hat, new shoes, and there it is. With old music, some new music, older guests and new guests, it all comes to one place. The old place in a beautiful new outfit and same old great vibes.

Touche!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Expression of Emotions

Art conversation Karin Lachmising , Sirano Zalman
Exhibition EXE , Sirano Zalman,
Expression of Emotions, De HAL december third.
Picture: Roy Ritveld

Expression , surely Sirano wanted to express something of his feeling about life as he sees it. Visitors seemed to look beyond the nude. Even the taboo's that so many of us felt before, seemed to be forgotten. Maybe we cannot run for president, posing nude, and maybe it is not acquiered to have the higher judge in a nude pose, but come to think about it. Who sets the rules for that? Which boundaries are the ones that lead a healthy society? When it comes to taboo's it is a structure of disfunctional rules, which art will challenge. Some spoke out, 'it is not about nude, it's about art'. 'It isn't even about how good Sirano has photoshopped'. Indeed it is the artist at work, wanting to express his feelings about life by exposing the human body in an enviroment he creates. He paints with pixels. It is typical that the ground poses he uses for the man figures seem to express hidden emotions, man fighting with feelings. When in the air, emotions come in balance, the man is flowing, his legs and arms are much more relaxed. The woman figures, in all poses, are open, and quite comfortable, in touch with nature. The exhibition shows a painter, wanting to be as close to human life as he possible can. And we sensed something more, during this discussion. The challenge of the artist with his own talent and desires, finding his way to express his feelings. Exe is not only about the pictures, or the artistic view which inspired Sirano. It is maybe even more.. a spiritual preperation for more to come, visualized by nude body's in the air, flying above history and voices in rooms, silent figures above the crowd. The 'fighting emotion' figures on the grounds and in the water seem to have only one purpose, to get to higher levels. So does the artist, he prepares us, a first step on a path of more to come.