There is in the Netherlands, in addition to the weed that is freely smoked in many bars and prostitutes hovering naked in the windows of the Red Light District of Amsterdam, a gallery of Cuban art, classic art, surreal and very Cuban.
The house of Karin Van Zuylen has been for just over ten years ago, Odyssey Gallery, created with his friend Carlos Casas, an artist born in Matanzas, under the concept of sharing and disseminating an art committed to solidarity, ecology, peace and love. On the walls of his home, carefully arranged, are drawings and paintings of Cuban plastic artists Julio Fleitas, Manuel Hernández Valdés and Vázquez, in addition to Carlos himself.
“Odyssey Gallery has a completely different way to expose its art, Karin Van Zuylen told OnCuba. “Living with Art” is based on a home gallery or gallery inside the house, where, as a visitor, you feel a homey environment; and you can visualize how it would look all that art in your own home. ”
“In the Netherlands we are the only ones we have developed this concept. The idea started over ten years ago, but two years ago it became a palpable reality. We present the art in the service of humanity and ecology, in a very familiar and simple atmosphere, very professional without financial claims. Occasionally we donate artwork for charity foundations such as KIKA, for example, which raises funds for children with cancer, “he added.
Perhaps the idea of exposing the Cuban pieces was Carlos´. Perhaps the idea of sleeping between strokes and strokes was Karin´s because Karin thinks is safe, that “art is a fantastic way to make people aware of life,” and if this is true, Karin fully lives for more than a decade. Also, for her, a home without art is missing something, but she said: “we do not work to excel, but to be remembered by future generations through our art.”
About upcoming activities of the Odyssey Galley, the also curator of her “own gallery” explained to OnCuba:
“We now have an exhibition in the gallery itself; however, we also exhibit in other cities, always under the name of Odyssey Gallery, and La Casa del Habano in The Hague and it is a reality that we will expand through the Benelux.
“We are also in contact with a television channel for an interview as a gallery owner and Carlos as main artist. The future will be immense. But Carlos says for us that what matters is the present, not the past or the future. We will offer what is necessary in the preservation and conservation, but our language is art.”
