Kas di Shon

“Kas di Shon” literally translates to “the master’s house” (on plantations in Curaçao) and the essay departs from NI’s question, “how can we work towards a non-racist, inclusive society”.

At the institute’s invitation, artist, researcher and filmmaker Miguel Peres dos Santos has written a critical analysis of the ways in which architecture is inextricably linked to the legacy of colonial thought and the frameworks that have literally and figuratively given shape to that thought over time. Peres dos Santos draws inspiration from the Nieuwe Instituut building, designed by Jo Coenen in 1992 for what was then the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi). He reflects on the persistence of institutional power structures in Europe and links them to the colonial architecture of the time of slavery in Curaçao. Sarmad Platform compiled the trilingual book (English, Dutch and Papiamento), supplementing the text with notes and images.