Risk Hazekamp at the Pennings Foundation
Recently I engaged with the curator of Social Dissolution of the West, and I prepared a series of questions for her. With them, I aim to explore the insights behind the curatorial work as well as the critical idea development behind the installations and pieces.
Questions:
DECOLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL THOUGHT:
You talk about reversal of perspectives, which implies tacit acknowledgement of the dichotomous position they take as opposing elements.
-When where you first aware of this ‘difference’ and did that make you question your own standing point as a person and practitioner?
Despite progress made in recent times, decolonisation, postcolonial thinking and doing are concepts that feel academic and inaccessible to the broader public.
-Do you find bridging the gap of education and reaching the audience in an engaging way difficult?
-Can you perceive noticeable reactions from the non-academic audience, be it surprise or shame and/or the desire to contribute to change?
“The narrative in which we grew up is a dynamic and changeable process”
-Are we, however, subject to commodification of ‘otherisation’ to fulfil our own establishment of status?
-Do we carry then, a need for responsibility as individuals benefiting from a model of structural privilege to actively question the established narratives?
Historical memory is a volatile topic rooted at the core of the decolonial practice. The accepted narratives when discussing postcolonial legacies is that of the ‘acculturation’ of new territories with a succinct acknowledgement of the suppression and horror indigenous inhabitants endured. -
Do you believe that the role of institutions in the process of decolonisation should involve a drastic shift in the way that the story is taught nowadays and therefore treated with a more objective and self-critical lens?
CURATION:
This show has a mixture of archival photographies and new takes on the same footage, be it playing with exposures, overlaying or cropping.T he photographs framed sliding off the wall, the double exposure of film or the mirrors installed to show the back of the archival images allow for multiple layers of depth and meaning to emerge to the viewer. The way in which the images have been organised and made to engage with space create a narrative of questioning but leaves it open to the viewer’s interpretation.
-In your own words, what is the purpose of creating these overlaps?
-During the duration of these installations, do you work out these approaches with an element of spontaneity while putting up the exhibition or is there a more pre-empted planning parting from specific questions you want the audience to ask?
-When you prepared the rationale of the identity of the exhibition, what inspired you to use elements that ’slide off the wall’, that lay cropped on a table, that is taped with bright red tape to other images side by side to neatly (and traditional) aligned frames?
I was told by the foundation that this has been a project with a long research and development process and that you singlehandedly created almost 100% of all the work, the curation and the installation of the exhibition. This is no small feat as you take on roles of researcher, writer-producer, artist-curator and instal team. It’s clear that you have the capacity to see a bigger picture and are capable of materialising ambitious visions you create.
-Do you have any advice for a young maker/thinker who wants to pursue projects in a similar way?