In a series of Atlantic Windows, various artists reflect on the maritime history of this area and the impact of its colonial past. In this Atlantic Window, visual artist Kevin Osepa reflects on the phenomenon of 'beursalen': young people from Curaçao who go to the Netherlands on a scholarship to study and seldom return.
Every year, approximately 200 students between the ages of 16 and 19 leave Curaçao to study in the Netherlands. They cross the Atlantic Ocean, leaving their families behind. Most of them never return, opting to settle in the Netherlands instead. It's an ongoing cycle of loss for the island of Curaçao.
Kevin Osepa, winner of the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts 2023, filmed twelve students who had emigrated to the Netherlands from Curaçao. They walk towards the sea in Scheveningen. Simultaneously, the mothers of these emigrated students in Curaçao also walk towards the water. They meet each other through the North Sea and the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. It's a brief moment of connection, yet separated by the same ocean that facilitated colonization and the transatlantic slave trade. It uprooted people and communities. Osepa reflects on the new forms colonial relationships take and the pain of constantly transferring potential to the Netherlands.
