Outside, the greenery flourishes, while the sunlight shines into the room where many found objects from nature can be seen. Animal skeletons, all kinds of shells and feathers are displayed, hanging from the ceiling, sorted on the floor and stored in overflowing chests of drawers. We are in the studio of artist Koos Buist (1984) who won the Hendrik de Vries Stipendium at the end of last year for his project Wadindians. Work related to this project will soon be on display during the art route of the Festival Back to the Beginning.
“What I make for Festival Back to the Beginning is part of the project for which I received the Hendrik de Vries stipend. I try to integrate Wadindians in all the different projects I'm doing this year. I often work best when I can develop the plan and ideas into different activities. After all, you already have the material and it also works fine. You have to be busy with it a lot, because then it will grow more and more. I see Back to the Beginning as a great opportunity to develop and present my work. By working towards such a point you can figure out what you ultimately want to show.
Wadindians is a search for sea people who live on the mudflats in the sea. The idea for this came about as a result of a discovery I made: a kind of feather fish. There I look for who made it, why and what it is. From this idea other works are born. I like to be inspired by stories about sea and nature peoples from all over the world, for example about sea nomads from Indonesia who hardly ever come ashore. From these stories, the idea of a Wadden people was born. You also have all kinds of stories in the Northern Netherlands about contact with sea creatures and entities, which triggered my fantasy again.
For Back to the Beginning I am making work for a church in Oosterwijtwerd. This church stands on a mound, traditionally intended to protect people and livestock against the rising water. That idea matched the line of thought of the Wadden people story. In and around the church I make a number of works, with respect for the water, such as a large sculpture in the shape of a dolphin. For this sculpture I work with materials that I have found around and in the sea. I often go wadjutting, collecting things like wood, gloves, strings. There is a message in the use of those materials, with those fishing nets and those skulls – that is an overarching theme within the project: our exploitative relationship with the sea and with nature in general.
With this project I try to transform myself into an amateur maritime anthropologist. I find it very interesting, but I am not a historian or a biologist. I think that's the great thing about being an artist, that you can play it all, so to speak. As a result, you can always explore your areas of interest in greater depth, without having to account to science. You often make up certain things on the spot. You can do that in the arts. It doesn't have to be nonsense yet, it's just a different approach. There may also be some humor in it, it should not be taken too seriously.
Film, spatial work and research are aspects that I am involved in. I 'find' or I make all kinds of works, such as those feather fish, and I have the idea of making a film. That film is a search for that people. And whether I can find them physically, I don't know. I think they can be found on the mudflats, but I don't know where exactly. I hope I can find them somewhere this year. Finally I present my work during Wildvang in CBK Groningen. At the same time I present my work in a large solo overview in museum Martena in Franeker. I see that as an end point of the spatial work, as a good benchmark at the end of the year.”