Tirzo Martha (1965) is a visual artist and also the co-founder of Instituto Buena Bista. Besides being of significant importance for the organization of All You Can Art and making art in his own studio at Kunsthal, Martha is doing a project on location at Laurens Delfshaven, a retirement home, during AYCA 2.

When Martha looks back on his experiences during AYCA 2, he vividly recalls something a visitor shared with him and that he now considers a wake-up call: “I spoke once with a gentleman during the project at Laurens and he told me that when he retired, he and his wife planned to go on a big trip. They went to France (I think) and when they came back to the Netherlands they wanted to continue traveling, but suddenly his wife got very ill and she died. This was very shocking and a big disappointment at that moment. Because you try to live your life as good as possible, you try to live a healthy life… but at the end of the day, if your body says ‘I’m not going to cooperate anymore’ it won’t collaborate. So that has had this big impact, because I could also see and feel that moment. You know? And I was talking to this person and I could feel the energy. Of the moment. Of disappointment. And for me, that’s something that I am taking along with myself. If I can do it now, I do it now”.

Martha is always reinventing himself in order to keep his creative process ongoing: “A reality in the life of an artist is that at a certain point you can easily become a magician that gets another trick out of his hat, and for me it’s very important to be aware of that and to be able to be critical towards myself”. He finds it incredibly important to be critical and aware of the reason why you are doing what you’re doing. To be able to develop his work in a way that it is much more than entertainment is an urgency for him.

After AYCA 2 Martha is not heading back to Curaçao, and thus the IBB, immediately. On the contrary, he is staying in The Netherlands where he has quite a tight planning. He’s making a sculpture for CBK in Amsterdam, he has a commission to make artwork for the Haags Historisch Museum, he has a book coming out, plus a solo exhibition in the museum ‘Beelden aan zee’, among other things… Interested to learn more about Tirzo Martha, his work during AYCA 2 and more? Stay tuned for the complete video!

Interview by Tittel Boomgaart