Galerie Noah Klink and Galeria Catinca Tabacaru are collaborating on the presentation of Xavier Robles de Medina at Art Rotterdam 2026.
„A statue of Queen Wilhelmina, crafted by Gerard van Lom, is unveiled on Orange Square in Paramaribo in 1923. In 1947, Simon Sanchez is arrested for planning a coup against the colonial Dutch government. His goal, he claims in court, is to humiliate the colony by destroying the statue of Queen Wilhelmina, and replacing it with a statue of the anti-colonial hero Anton de Kom, who had died in a German concentration camp in 1945. The statue stands for a total of fifty-two years on Orange Square, until the night before Surinamese Independence—when my grandfather, Stuart Robles de Medina, and a team of assistants, move the colonial statue from the renamed Independence Square onto the site of Fort Zeelandia.“
Xavier Robles de Medina’s work combines meticulous, time-intensive production with extensive historical research. His practice explores the intersections of personal history, political memory, and public monuments, often reflecting on colonial legacies and the instability of collective remembrance.
Alongside these historical narratives, Robles de Medina incorporates imagery from mass media and popular culture. By subtly appropriating familiar visual motifs, his works reveal how power and ideology circulate through images, fame, and cultural iconography.