2. Cannibalizing Popular Culture
AT HOME IN THE DUTCH EAST INDIES: THE LIFE OF EUROPEANS — Tropenmuseum Collection, (Thuis in Indie: Het leven der Europeanen), Java Sumatra period 1912-1941, 6 min. film footage
Produced by the former Colonial Institute of Amsterdam (nowadays Royal Tropical Institute), this short documentary intends to depict 'European/Metropolitan' life established by colonial rule in the Indonesian archipelago. Starting with a scene where a Dutch housewife buys food from an Indonesian peasant, who arrives to her house entrance with traditional baskets full of vegetables and spices, the film footage rapidly centers around a popular Western bourgeois leisure activity of the epoch: High tea houses. Explicitly showing the distinction of class and race within Dutch-Indonesian colonial society, the film 'At Home in the Dutch East Indies' seems to be a governmental propaganda to recruit more Dutch families to move to their colonies.
MING WONG — Singapore 1971, lives and works in Berlin
Originally commissioned for the 53rd Venice Biennale for the artist's solo exhibition at the Singapore Pavilion, 'Life of Imitation' is inspired by a scene from the classic Hollywood melodrama by Douglas Sirk, 'Imitation of Life' (1959) when a black mother meets her mixed-race daughter who has been running away from her true 'identity'. Ming's version features three male actors from the three main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) who take turns playing the black mother and her 'white' daughter. The identity of the actor for each role changes constantly with each shot as a kind of rotating cannibalistic process of identification.
The work of Ming Wong has been shown at Invaliden1 Gallery, Berlin; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; South London Gallery, London; Kunstverein Duesseldorf, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria, ZKM centre for art and media, Karlsruhe. Wong is a former resident fellow of Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin and a graduate of Slade School of Art, University College London. Wong represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009, gaining critical acclaim for his presentation 'Imitation of Life', which was honored with the Expanding Worlds special mention award.
CHRISTODOULOS PANAYIOTOU — Limassol 1978, lives and works in Berlin
'Wonderland', realized with the collaboration of the Municipal Archives of the City of Limassol, Cyprus, is the outcome of extensive research in the historical archives of the city of Limassol, pointing out the 'obsession' of Limassolians to disguise themselves as Disney characters during their annual carnival parade. The work covers the period from the late '70s up to the present and renegotiates the historic and political narrative of this important social event.
The work of Christodoulos Panayiotou has been exhibited at Kunsthalle Zurich, 2010; Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2009-2010; The Museum of Modern Art Oxford, UK, 2006; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, 2007; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center Istanbul, 2006; and Den Frie, Copenhagen, 2007.
HANS HEIJNEN — Sittard 1957, lives and works in the Netherlands
The first sounds of Rock&Roll produced in Holland were by "Indos"; Dutch-Indonesians who fled their homeland when Indonesia became independent from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Through culture clashes, affinity with American rock 'n' roll, black-American guitar-orientated music and their 'Asian touch', a unique sound developed into the best Europe had to offer. Starring legendary Indo-rock bands like The Tielman Brothers, Javelins, Crazy Rockers, Black Dynamites and Black Magic, 'Rockin' Ramona' brings us back to a moment of both post-war and post-colonial cohesion and tension at times of a new world order where Rock was expanding globally, not to say inherently imperially, but always manifested with a certain locality.
Hans Heijnen (Sittard, 1957) studied political sciences in Nijmegen and later enrolled at the The Netherlands Film and Television Academy (NFTA). His documentary films were awarded with several nominations: 'Rockin' Ramona', the first long documentary Heijnen produced received immediately the Gouden Kalf nomination at the Dutch Film Festival in 1991. He has also directed among others, 'The Surinamese Legion, 2004' a documentary about the Surinam professional football players in the Netherlands, between 1954 until 2000.
15 minutes break
RAIMOND CHAVES — Bogota 1963, lives and works in Lima
'El Toque Criollo' is a lecture with multimedia presentations about political, historical, social and cultural issues of Latin America as exemplified by the images of old record covers bought in Latin American flea markets. This humorous lecture gives context to the LP images that are projected while music is played from the popular genres: ranchera, cumbia, salsa, and merengue, which serve as a historiographic disembodiment of semiotics. The hardcore stories range from how music bands appropriated the aesthetics of political agitation resulting in lyrics and imagery directly or indirectly connected to repression within dictatorships: Marxist-Leninist and Maoist rural insurgency, drug cartels, and American pop influence. The artist's presentation reveals yet other post-colonial traumas where racism and sexism mark the form of cultural representation.
The work of Raimond Chaves is part of international collections like Tate Modern, London, and MUCAC in Leon. Chaves has been part of the 27th Sao Paulo Bienal: How to live together, and Trienal Poligrafica de Puerto Rico, among many others.
Followed by a Q&A discussion
Information
TIME + LOCATION — 18 February, 20.00 hrs at the Tropentheater, Linnaeusstraat 2, Amsterdam
DOORS OPEN — 19.00 hrs
ENTRANCE — 7,50 Eur inclusive one drink
PARTNER — Tropentheater Amsterdam, Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
GRAPHIC DESIGN — COUP, Amsterdam
INFORMATION — pers@agentur.nl / agentur.nl / tropentheater.nl
TICKET RESERVATION — Tropentheater and telephone: 020 5688 500
NEXT DATA — 31 March, 28 April