BIOGRAPHY 

FAISEL SARO
 

Faisel Saro in The Groninger Museum / Foto: Christopher Smith.

FAISEL SARO

In November 1975 Suriname declared its independence. The result a flow of 400.000 of the 800.000 immigrants went to the Netherlands,

Some of these returned, but the majority remained in the Netherlands. One of the people who made the switch from Suriname to the Netherlands is me, Faisel Saro.

I'm from Surinamese descent, born in Willemstad (Curaçao) and raised with my grandparents in Paramaribo.

My grandfather was a shaman. In imitation of him, I also strive to bring people in balance.

When I was seven, I emigrated to the Netherlands, where I was reunited with my mother and

sister, in Vinkhuizen, a neighborhood of Groningen.

I relatively went late to the Art Academy Minerva in Groningen. I realized that I had lost valuable time, compared to people from an earlier age. To compensate this loss of experience, I set out to become an expert in a very specific area. An area I know the most of everyone in the world: my body.

A serious traffic accident and chronic conditions have partly determined this concept; my body.

My body is my artistic compass. I get meaning from damage, disease and healing processes in my body.

In addition to the signs that reveal in my body I feel a strong connection with certain places.I have discovered that there are places where I experience physical phenomen,a such as shaking,

sweating, an accelerated heartbeat and dizziness. When I have such an experience, I examin the place and work out the (spiritual) meaning  in my studio and transform them into works of art.

At first sight, the images hardly reveal anything about my country of origin, but spiritual and ritual traditions from the Winti faith are certainly reflected in my working method and basic attitude. In a hidden way. Like the Trojan horse, the images are animated with these original influences.

For me, imagining my emotional world is a pure necessity. That is my purpose in life. In my images I expose social injustices. Not literally, but I subtly portray my individual experiences, feelings and interpretations of situations. 

Faisel Saro.