People decorate their bodies as long as we can remember.

This can be done in different ways and for various reasons. You can apply loose decorations to the body, like necklaces, rings, arm- and legbands and earrings. You can also make decorations on the skin and in the skin itself. Think about body painting, tattooing or piercing the skin. Hair and nails can be done separately.   

Decoration of the body can be done for various reasons: ceremonial or religious reasons, as a status symbol, a sign of protection, to indicate that the person belongs to a particular group or a unique reason connected with the person itself, such as an important reminder. Of course it is also done because someone simply finds it beautiful and takes pleasure in decorating his own body: look how beautiful I am! Or it can be used to seduce someone: look how attractive I am!

In this exhibition we show the decorations as they were and still are being used in Suriname. This does not mean that these ways of decoration are not used elsewhere. Decorating is done globally and the way of decorating can be reduced to several basic features. Variations thereof are inexhaustible.

We do not show body covering decorations in this exhibition, so no clothes, hats, shoes and so on.

This exhibition was realized with a contribution of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.