“PATRAS DEN STUDIO” DOCUMENTARY
Angelo Werleman
18/02/2026
Back in August and September 2025 I filmed and documented, across six days, the preparations for the group exhibition Taste of Bonaire by WHATSIDE and THE ISLANDS GOATS at Art Singel 100 on the 6th of September 2025.
As I sat “patras den studio” (in the back of the studio), I got a rush of goosebumps when I realized what was unfolding. A group of Bonairean artists preparing for an exhibition in Amsterdam, in a gallery where its not exactly known to have so many colors all around, and I get to document all of this.
This is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do.
The last year has been very transformative for me and for the projects I’ve had the opportunity to be part of. Tracing it all back to the ecosystem that allowed me to practice my craft made me very grateful. It all goes back to Xander, aka XTC, aka Cozygodfvther. Through my friendship with Xander I got introduced to Dillone Rannou and The Island Goats. In his interview he shouts them out and speaks on 2SO, a music collective whose core members come from that same circle. It’s crazy because now Xander moved to Bonaire and is collaborating closely with them, from Discord servers to real life.
Back in 2024, Dilly came to the Netherlands for an exhibition. I invited him over, and that’s where we sat down in my tiny music studio and recorded our first interview together. Like many other voice memo interviews, it now lives somewhere on my hard drives. At that time I was in my spontaneous interviewing era. Between 2022 and 2024 I interviewed friends who made art just for the sake of it, and also elderly people from San Nicolas. I will return to those one day.
Dillone Rannou [WHATSIDE], Rimmon De Vries [RI-FLEX], Ole Nikolai [OLE KARPOV], and Darwin Luna Colorado [The Island Goats]. A group of multidisciplinary artists working across music, painting, video production, photography, and design. Darwin does everything mentioned except music, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has touched that too somewhere along his path. Darwin, the Chubato of the group, a big brother figure, is one of the few people who has extensively documented bike life and skate culture on Bonaire through photography and video. Through his practice and collaborations, he and a couple of friends started the Island Goats collective, which has now existed for more than ten years.
Dillone and Rimmon have been making music for a long time, which later expanded into visual art for Dilly during the pandemic, and more recently for Rimmon as well. They had crossed paths growing up but only became close later, after randomly meeting and chilling outside an event and both expressing that they’d rather be in the studio making music. They are both part of 2SO (Too Slept On Records). Over the years they’ve created a lot together. Their latest body of work being the 2025 project #clouddays, an ode to cloud rap.
Ole Nikolai, a quiet and timid character, blew my mind when he started showing me his music productions. As they call him, “secret weapon Niko.” He and Dilly have known each other since childhood, growing up on Bonaire with Trinidadian and Norwegian roots. They started experimenting with art together years ago through grafitti and plastering works around the island. Someone please tell him to drop music, the world needs to hear it. You can hear parts of his production in the documentary.
The roots of the collaboration between Art Singel 100 and Dilly go back to around 2023, during the production of the film Mamadu. That’s where they met Pavle Mihalic, the curator of Art Singel 100. The story goes that Dilly was supposed to have an artwork featured in a scene, but it was removed because it didn’t “fit” the aesthetic. Darwin pushed for Dilly’s work to be included anyway. Pavle noticed that moment, and it stayed with him.
Before bringing Taste of Bonaire to Amsterdam, they had already organized an edition of the exhibition on Bonaire the year prior. When the opportunity came up to exhibit abroad, Pavle reached out and opened that door for them. The rest is history.
WHATSIDE’s work sits in an abstract, mixed-media language that carries a Banksy/Basquiat-adjacent energy, but is firmly rooted in his own lived reality on the islands. He works with layered textures, crayons, spray paint, plaster, and clothes building surfaces that feel raw, tactile, colorfoul and alive.
His work reflects fragments of island life, identity, and environment, translated through abstraction. Without necessarily aiming for it, his practice also operates as a form of activist documentation, engaging with the colonial remnants that still shape the islands today. This becomes visible through his collaborations with Greenpeace Bonaire and, more recently, the European Union, where his work sheds light on urgent social and environmental realities.
Abstract art, punk and hip-hop energy, mixed with criyoyo spirit. That’s the only way I can describe this group. An intersection of artistic outlook and an unending hunger for something more.
My approach for this project was to continue what I’ve always been doing: documenting through conversation, presence, and observation. Casual conversations, them working, moments unfolding naturally, alongside a more direct talking-head interview.
These two methods complement each other, allowing me to capture a wider scope of who they are and what they’re building.
It became a participatory process. I conversed, I helped where I could, I stayed present. Most of the moments unfolded in the back of the studio, which is exactly why this project is called Patras Den Studio.
All the finishing touches paid off. People came through from all generations, younger and older. Amigos, primos, tios, tantes, oma, opa. It was a beautiful sight to see. Art Singel 100 became a space where Bonairean and ABCSSS cultures intertwined and met through art. It was heartwarming to see people they grew up with, people they went to school with back on the island, show up and support.
I got to witness a group of creatives from the islands put their minds to something and bring it to life, placing themselves on the map despite infrastructural challenges and the bureaucracy of the art world. One can only dream of a world where everyone can get a piece of the pie. Still, kudos to them for making this happen, independently funding the majority of their endeavour with the help of family and friends.
Thank you to this group of friends for opening their circle to me, for allowing me to be present in those moments and to get to know them. May this be the first of many marks we leave together, as the art scene continues to bloom across our islands, our language, and our diasporas.
Go watch the documentary and learn more about their history, influences, and where they are heading.