In Blackout international artists use the medium of the transparency to raise questions about our lack of a collective memory. They deploy the 35 mm carousel slide projector that has gone out of fashion to bring forgotten, concealed or deliberately lost histories to light. With their installations the artists explore the historical memory from a personal perspective.
Prapat Jiwarangsan (Thailand) projects names that trigger associations with political events from the past. The installation by Aura Satz (United Kingdom) underlines the important role played by women scientists in NASA around 1900. The work of Ahmad Fuad Osman is an invitation – via an imaginary character – to go in search of the forgotten history of Malaysia. The ten selected works all date from after 2004, the year in which Kodak stopped producing the Carousel Slide Projector. Blackout breathes new life not only into history, but also into this forgotten medium.
Performance Black Utopia LP (2012)
There will be a special programme in the Kunsthal on Sunday 27 January from 12.30 hrs, with guided tours by the artists and the performance Black Utopia LP (2012) by the interdisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith (USA).
artists
Hannah Dawn Henderson, United Kingdom/Netherlands
Floris Vanhoof, Belgium
Aura Satz, United Kingdom
Nguyen Trinh Thi, Vietnam
Tamar Guimarães, Brazil
Raha Raissnia, United States
Prapat Jiwarangsan, Thailand
Ahmad Fuad Osman, Malaysia
Kristina Benjocki, Netherlands
Cauleen Smith, United States
Praneet Soi, India/Netherlands
Collaboration
The Kunsthal presents Blackout as part of its long-term collaboration with the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Blackout has been put together by the IFFR programmer Julian Ross and forms part of the Deep Focus section of the IFFR programme.
For IFFR card holders acces to the exhibition Blackout is free.
See also
