In 2013, Afra Jonker of Boa Producties was asked to contribute to the event KUnSTPLAATS, held on 4 and 5 May 2013 in Hoek van Holland. The theme was 'Freedom'. That same year, the nation also commemorated 150 years since the abolition of slavery.
Afra decided that a short dance film needed to be made, one that would travel along the coast of the Netherlands. Shortly afterwards, Afra approached me to shape the artistic execution of this idea.
In the end, the idea of making a short dance film turned out to need a lot more time to be worked out concretely. In 2018, we decided to make a test recording to see whether we were heading in the right direction in terms of atmosphere. The Bijlmer Parktheater gave us the opportunity to do the filming there.
Test edit of the dance film Armazoen
We were more than satisfied with the result. However, it would still take some time before we had assembled the entire team and the resources to actually realise the film and its screening route along the coast.
The run-up to making the dance film Armazoen, which would eventually also become part of the overarching 'Art Project Armazoen', therefore took almost 10 years!