Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, 28 October 2021, Eye 2: 14–16 hrs, screening of Stones Have Laws and book launch of Drifting Studio Practice.
Stones Have Laws (Dee Sitonu a Weti) is an immersive initiation into the life of a Maroon community in the former Dutch colony of Suriname. Combining stories of African ancestral traditions and escaped slavery with enacted contemporary rituals, the film explores how the community’s powerful ties to the land have become endangered as industries threaten to devastate the region through deforestation and mining.
The project was initiated by Dutch artists Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan and developed in collaboration with the Surinamese theater maker Tolin Erwin Alexander. The Maroon community was closely involved in the development of the script, which was written using an experimental process of collective scripting. The result is a unique cinematic form that bridges filmmaking, poetry and theatre.
The screening of Stones Have Laws is followed by a conversation with the three co-directors moderated by curator and researcher Astrid Korporaal. The event will close with the book launch of Drifting Studio Practice | Studio op Drift in which van Brummelen and de Haan discuss a.o. the making of Stones Have Laws.
The bilangual book Drifting Studio Practice | Studio op Drift was realized in the framework of Promoveren in de kunsten, a pilot program funded by the Dutch Research Council and Mondriaan Fund. Jason Fox, Jesse van Winden and Rhea Harbers edited the book. Matthias Hübner and Janis Gildein developed the design concept, which reflects the artist’s practice of coauthorship. It is published by Hatje Cantz.