Text Giacomo Andrea Minazzi
@giacomominazzi

«Nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns». The unexpected is the marvel of a meeting, a meeting cannot exist if there is not a bad meeting – lack, discard. As to say, one plus one never makes two. As to say, in the Netherlands you expect to see windmills, canals, chill, small brick houses, and you find a piece of California.

Step into the Bonnefantemuseum in Maastricht, on the eastern side of the Meuse river, rebuilt in the Nineties by Italian Aldo Rossi over an ex convent , the bons-enfants. Light wooden floors, orderly bags lockers, unattended hallstands – people trust each other. You climb the stairs, then a long preliminary. The cupola. A space for stopping, for changing step, for slowing down and stretching on the cushions on the floor and observe the graphic signs on the walls, for taking the right time before starting. While a whirlwind on the top of the cupola is turned by the wind.

You go upstairs again. You start feeling the music. Powerful. You have to open a heavy door and you are welcomed by the first video. It is real Los Angeles, the streets, the hairdresser, the groups, the sound of a shot. You stand there, plunged into it. Music is relentless. You turn the corner, the ocean, a song composition. Overwhelmed and yet still, absorbed by faraway worlds. In a while you do not find yourself in the Netherlands anymore. You are beside yourself, you do not even perceive it. You breathe, observe, listen. Time stops, flows quickly. In each room of the exhibition, dreams twist together with everyday life scenes, oneiric moments shot the real times as to cover the imagination. Tension between good and evil, «Beyond the principle of pleasure». Music keeps the rhythm, dreams keep the direction. You have re-discovered your home, you have seen it in the difference with the other places mentioned, you have found it in that lack. A feeling of melancholy, a wish for something new.

«There’s nothing new
under the sun,
but there are new suns».

New Suns
Kahlil Joseph

1 December 2017 > 25 March 2018

Bonnefantenmuseum
Avenue Ceramique, 250 – Maastricht (Netherlands)

Tuesday > Sunday, 11:00AM > 5:00PM

€ 12 Adults
€ 6 Students
Free until 18 years old

Images courtesy of Press Office
bonnefanten.nl – @bonnefanten