This exhibition features artwork by students from Lodewijk College in Terneuzen, the Netherlands. They drew inspiration from the artists of CATPC – “Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise.” This group of plantation workers creates art on their history, land, and future. Their works are exhibited worldwide and often stem from their own position as a community of planation workers and artists in Lusanga, DR Congo.
The students learned about CATPC through a special teaching package made in collaboration with “Human Activities,” an organization that has been working with CATPC for many years. Human Activities helps to connect the community on the plantation in Lusanga and other parts of the world. In the lessons, the students reflected on ownership, history, inequality, and the role of art in these issues. They then created their own art, giving shape to their ideas through sculptures, music, paintings, and video work.
Echoes of the Day is an exchange: between Terneuzen and Lusanga, between students and artists, between the past and the future. It is an invitation to look, listen, learn, and meet each other through art.
The collaboration between Lodewijk College and Human Activities will continue in the future. Human Activities is developing a new art platform together with the people of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Inspired by CATPC in Lusanga, students of Lodewijk College are involved in all phases of the construction of this White Cube. This new art platform will work on the same principle as in Lusanga: art enables the community to take back control of its history, its land, and its future. The school project is part of global citizenship education in accordance with the new school plan of Lodewijk College.
