Becoming And Belonging
The exhibition BECOMING AND BELONGING marks twenty years of friendship and
community, synthesized in the brand Patta. The label's founders Guillaume - Gee - Schmidt and Edson Sabajo met in the '90s in inner-city Amsterdam, against a backdrop of subcultures that would shape their identities and lives for good.
If anything, Patta is a result of the shared energy specific to the Amsterdam Hip-Hop scene in the late '90s and early 2000s. BECOMING AND BELONGING reflects on this community, that has been the foundation of the label. It shows Patta before it became Patta, when friends would gather around turntables and bars, be it the beloved and infamous Café de Duivel, or well-known parties like Chocolate, Bassline and STPDFRSH. The exhibition looks back on the decades of the early Hip-Hop scene in Amsterdam as a vibrant and eclectic place where creativity took center stage with music, art and fashion.
In these decades the culture and lifestyle were still marginalized, so everybody involved in Hip-Hop could feel like family. It was a collective of youngsters born from people with roots from all over the world and raised with a great sensitivity for social justice and an equally deep love for music and culture. At the same time, the style and attitude that came with this prototypical urban lifestyle were easily dismissed in more mainstream parts of society. It was precisely within these dynamics of young, urban energy against the indifference of the masses that great things could be born.
Gee and Edson grew from selling pattas (Surinamese for sneakers) into launching the Patta Original Clothing label and opening flagships stores in London (2016), Milan (2019) and Lagos (2024). The company currently counts a team of some 70 people. The crown on their accomplishments is arguably the atta Foundation, raising money to fight social injustice, and Patta Academy, striving to build bridges for young and talented inner-city kids. Juanita Mendicuti Ortega is one of the talented alumni of the Academy, presenting her work in this Exhibition.
Photographer Yamandu Roos, a longtime friend of the label's founders, has been witnessing the evolution and growth of Patta from the start. From the shaping of Gee and Edson's friendship, into the sometimes rocky building of their personality-heavy label, followed by its international success, Yamandu was present as a friend with camera in-hand. The exhibition is a visual ode to the foundation on which Patta was built. It takes the visitor on an intimate tour from mid and late '90s Amsterdam and allied subcultures in cities around the world, to the ever-expanding community that Patta is now.
Moreover, BECOMING AND BELONGING is a reflection on joy and friendship, on heritage and future, and on ways to make room from the margins of society, right into the center of our towns.
