About Marcel Pinas

Characteristic of Marcel Pinas’ work is the use of letters from the Afaka, a script of 56 characters that was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Ndyuká, a Maroon community in the east of Suriname to which Marcel Pinas belongs. Maroons fled the plantations and founded their own communities in the wilderness, remaining true to their African origins. Pinas always gives the letters of the Afaka a role in his sculptures and installations. Pinas says: ‘My work is like the voice of the community where I was born.’ For him, this orientation towards his own culture is a very conscious choice. He saw that his native region was being ruined by a guerrilla war and decided to use his art for the economic and cultural recovery of his community. He founded art institutes on the spot to familiarise his own people with their heritage.

At ARTZUID, Pinas is showing the sculpture NA BIKA TU NA FO, which means equality. The sculpture in corten steel is symmetrically constructed from letters from the Afakalanguage.