Collectivity, Memory, and Art Making: Marcel Pinas and the Maroons in Suriname

Abstract

This article develops an online interview conducted with the visual artist Marcel Pinas who lives and works in the Caribbean continental country of Suriname, South America. Marcel Pinas, starting from his standpoint as a Maroon clan descendant, focuses his art practice, art projects, and art festival on the country’s complex Maroon culture. The interview analyzes the country’s historical and sociopolitical context and explains the creative process and communitarian development of the art festival that Marcel Pinas initiated in Moengo, a symbolic location for the Maroon population and for Suriname’s post-independence history. Moreover, following the artist’s opinions and shared the article integrates Marcel Pinas’ artworks and installations—even when these are referred to ever so tacitly—and shows some of the relationships between his art practices and the Maroon communities as well as interconnections with the global contemporary art world.