In the seventies a new form of popular art emerged in Surinam, particularly in the capital of Paramaribo. Paintings and texts, which became in the course of time increasingly exuberant, were put on private 'wild' busses and shaved ice carts.

Nowadays these kinds of street art flourish as never before. Hundreds of busses and shaved ice carts form a mobile exhibition with pictures of Afro-American and Indian stars, trains, trumpets, and calligraphic texts. Sometimes complete buildings are wrapped in enormous hyperrealistic advertising paintings.

The exhibition Schaafijs en wilde bussen (Shaved ice and wild busses) gives an impression of this informal art form, which is rather unknown in the Netherlands. At the same time it tells the history of this kinds of street art, and shows work of the most important artists.

Residency
The Surinam-Hindu artist Nishar Khodabaks will be artist-in-residence in The Hague until the beginning of October. He is commissioned to produce several works in and around the Weimarstraat together with and for the district.

Education
With this exhibition also goes a unique Schaafijs en wilde bussen education workshop! Get more information here.

Opening
The festive opening of the exhibition will take place 11 september 2010 between 4.00pm and 6.00pm, with the official opening by Rabin Baldewsingh at about 05.00pm. The Hague dance school Pretima Ke Dewashrie will perform a special dance twice this afternoon.

During the month of August, American artist Zachary Formwalt will be working in residence at Heden Hier in the Weimarstraat 24a in The Hague.

Formwalt is working on a film and a book, both part of a new project that is about two apparently disconnected journalistic events reporting on the 1866 credit panic in England by the weekly newspaper, The Economist (which is still in print today, though now in magazine form) and the entry of photography into newsprint in 1880 through an image of Shantytown, New York, in the illustrated newspaper, The Daily Graphic.

Of particular interest is the relation between the image of Shantytown, New York and the construction of Central Park, on the one hand, and a notebook of Karl Marx’s which takes The Economist’s reporting on the so-called credit panic as its subject on the other. During his residency, Formwalt will be experimenting with various ways of presenting the research he has carried out thus far, in video, photography, and text formats.

On the 21^st of August Zachary Formwalt will present the results of his working period at Hier during an informal barbecue that starts at 18.00. The book and the film on which he is working will be issued sometime in October. On the 21st of August Zachary Formwalt will present the results of his working period at Hier during an informal barbecue that starts at 18.00. The book and the film on which he is working will be issued sometime in October. The final project, produced with the support of Casco—Office for Art, Design and Theory and the Serralves Foundation, will be presented at Casco in Utrecht in October and the Serralves Museum in Porto in November.

Op = Op (When it’s gone, it’s gone) is the comparison with which shopkeepers try to draw attention to their products, for example, by flysheets. It is a matter-of-fact comparison which should invite consumers to spend more money.  

Op = op is also the name of André Kruysen’s project. On 1 December 2009 he started working for three months at the project building Hier at the invitation of Heden.  André Kruysen is a sculptor, who often interferes with architecture in which he exhibits. This means that the space has undergone a metamorphosis. It happens here as well, but because the three-month long working period is longer than usual, he can even have his own work undergo a metamorphosis.  

André Kruysen is taking pictures of ‘social sculptures’ for quite a time; often heaps of rubbish in the streets from local shopkeepers, which to him represent sculptural value. This collection of photographs has become one of the starting points of the project, together with the building in which André Kruysen works. Come quick and have a look, because you know: Op = Op!