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RELOCATED IDENTITIES PART II : RELOCATING PRODUCTS AND PEOPLE

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25th June - 17th July 2005

Opening Saturday 25th June : 7pm



EXHIBITION 
Laura Horelli, Michael Rakowitz, Hinrich Sachs, Raoul Teulings, 
Stefan Ruitenbeek and Tarik Sadouma

LECTURES AND PRESENTATION
Saturday 25th June from 4pm - Elena Simons, Monika Bakke, Raoul Teulings, Hinrich Sachs 
Sunday 3rd July from 4pm - Victoria Carolan, Esther Polak, Andre Platteel

Curated by Inga Zimprich / Produced by Mhairi Macfarlane, Andrew McKee & PSWAR 
A publication will accompany the exhibition, designed by Selina Buetler,
Matthias Kreutzer and Paul Gangloff


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Migration is a phenomenon that has shaken Western Europe. Integration, adaptation or
exclusion of others? Christian values, traditions and beliefs suddenly play a major role
as we strive to define 'our' identity in opposition to 'theirs'. But is there actually
such a thing as a core-culture to which a foreign impulse can be alien?

It is probably mere illusion that a clear line can be drawn between countries, nations and
different cultural identities - the concept that we are part of closed systems, whose
entrances and exits we can control, is an attempt to get a grip on a complex and vivid
organism. Relocated Identities articulates a concept of an open system, in which people,
goods and ideas circulate, spread and interconnect with each other.

Our stable home-culture consists of a mix of values and goods, all arriving from
somewhere, derived from something and already on their way to conquer new grounds. With
brute force exported during colonialism, implementing its exploitations into its
self-image, wealth and habitus, on closer consideration our culture itself is a hybrid. 

The image of a firm set of values dissolves and reveals the view of an organic mass.
Within this mass, though, different ways and routes, histories of escapes, flights and
arrivals can be traced. And not only of humans - from spices, tea and gun-powder to
contemporary diseases such as SARS, it is not only people that travel by boat, plane or
car and adapt themselves to new cultural environments. 

Relocated Identities Part II   Relocating Products and People presents the following
selection of human and non-human migrants to investigate the migration-routes of animals,
objects, products, and meanings travelling over this planet.


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Exhibition

Hinrich Sachs will bring his friends Khokha, Xiao Mei Zhi, and Kami, the Egyptian,
Chinese and South-African national characters of the multinational franchise Sesame-Street.

In RETURN, Michael Rakowitz re-opened the once successful import/export business of his
grandfather. Davisons & Co imports Iraqi products to America and offers free shipping to
the "liberated" country.

The Dutch artist Raoul Teulings questions the use of the word art as a travelling concept.
He maps the migration of the word from one discourse to another in the wall-drawing W.Art.

In Japanese English Advertisement Slogans, Finnish artist Laura Horelli invited young
Japanese to create dialogues based on advertisements found on product packaging, which
often function as a visual trigger rather than to convey meaning.

The video Cultural Superiority, by Tarik Sadouma and Stefan Ruitenbeek, is staged in the
Egyptian desert and functions as a message 'directed to a cultural institute we are part of'. 


Lectures

In Zoo Pleasures, Polish theorist Monika Bakke will speak about the relationship of exchange 
between humans and animals, drawing our attention to the female dog Lajka, the first Russian 
astronaut to enter space in 1957. 

Social inventor Elena Simons informs us about the multitude of ideas on how exchange within
society can be facilitated, explored in more detail in her book "Pret met Muslims". 

In his lecture From Communication to Creation, cultural theorist Andre Platteel promotes
different narrative structures for contemporary marketing. 

Esther Polak introduces the MILK project, which traces the movements of a chain of producers
and consumers of Latvian cheese from green meadows to Dutch market. 

Maritime scientist Victoria Carolan dedicates her lecture to several kinds of products that
have been shipped between continents, from Norwegian ice blocks that cooled the rich of
ancient London, to the most precious good of all: the human being on a luxury cruise ship. 


Alongside contributions from the participants, the accompanying publication contains the
"Small Cultural History of Vomiting" by ethnologist Thomas Hausschild, who, in a year-long 
field research in Southern Italy, investigated the culture of vomiting, and found that
Coca-Cola exists in an ancient tradition of herbal medicines.


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RELOCATED IDENTITIES is kindly supported by VSB Fonds,
Amsterdam's Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) and S.I.C.A. Foundation


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