Education
Learn all about the economy

"I want to tell a new story about the islands. My personal perception, my story." An interview with Gilleam Trapenberg (b. 1991). He took the photograph Kant'i laman Nº 3, Aan het water Nº 3 (2022). De Nederlandsche Bank acquired the work in 2023.
"In this picture, you can see a couple standing at the waterfront. I took it last year. I drove around a bit and I happened to see a group of teenagers on a small beach on the northern coast of Curaçao. These two are looking at the horizon together. The image exudes a feeling of hope, of optimism – something I hadn't seen in my work before. This picture is part of a series showing youngsters at this vantage point. Looking out – across the water – to the Netherlands, to the future. Because it's in the land of the former coloniser where the future lies for many young people nowadays. Because if you were born in Curaçao, many of your relatives will have moved to the Netherlands. As a teenager, you are always faced with a choice: stay in Curaçao or go abroad. Of course, you can stay in Curaçao and study there, but as things currently stand, moving abroad gives you a better chance of really making something of your life. So this work is symbolic of the dreams many teenagers in Curaçao have of the future. And I was part of that myself before I moved to the Netherlands at the age of 19."
"The relationship between representation and the public image in the Caribbean is something that can be related to the impact of post-colonialism. My work is not directly about the historical links to slavery, but the past does play a role in the public image. I draw inspiration from objects and images from the colonial past. In recent years, this episode in history has received much more attention. It also inspires other artists from this region. Last year, I created the work Nos Pais, Our Land. It’s a collection of everything that Curaçao's colonial past was for me at the time: old postcards, stamps, car stickers, everything came together in that work. That was visual culture. The islands are often depicted as a utopian paradise. I want to shatter that image. I am now working on a project about the image I have of Curaçao. The longer I have been away, the more romantic my image of the island becomes. I go to Curaçao for a few months every year, and every time I'm there, I’m reminded of the island’s rough side. I have mixed feelings, a love-hate relationship. The island I left behind is no longer there. But what is it nowadays? What does it feel like to be coming home? That's what I'm examining."
"I want to tell a new story about the islands. There’s no single linear narrative of what Curaçao is about. In the past, I have seen many artists from abroad telling their stories in their works. I believe it’s important that people from the islands too tell their own stories. It is important to strike the right balance in this respect. I don't want to create a purely documentary project about Curaçao. For a long time, my work was melancholic and fairly preoccupied with the past. I wanted to be critical in my work because it means I was also critical of Curaçao. My perception is that time stands still there, there is too little development. In recent years, since I took these photos by the water, my work has become more personal. It has become more forward-looking, more associative. And it has become more fictional, closer to reality. It’s about my personal perception, my story about my Curaçao. It’s the story of someone born and raised in Curaçao who has now lived in the Netherlands for 12 years. I want to convey that story through my work, broadening the narrative and engaging in dialogue about everything else the islands are about."
What do you want your audience to take away from your work?
"The story of the islands is much broader and richer than the one-dimensional story of the exotic tourist resort. There is much more going on. The ordinary, everyday aspects of life. For a long time, I wanted to engage in dialogue with others – Dutch, Europeans – about the islands’ public image. I wanted to show them a different side of the islands. Recently, I want my work to also appeal to people who left the islands for the Netherlands as children. My latest works are about my personal quest. It’ll be interesting to see how that’s going to work out."
Gilleam Trapenberg (1991) moved from Curaçao to the Netherlands when he was 19. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2017. In autumn 2020, he participated in the group exhibition In the Presence of Absence at the Stedelijk Museum. In the photography project This Surely Must Be Paradise, he combined portraits of acquaintances and friends, images of landscapes and residential areas on Sint Maarten, and panoramas from travel brochures. At Foam, he had his first solo exhibition: Unbé t'aweró ('Soon it will be later' in Papiamentu).