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Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Born 1977 in Busan, KR – lives and works in Amsterdam, NL, and Brussels, BE
Four Months, Four Million Light Years (2020) is a shamanic healing journey addressing the colonial narratives behind interracial and international adoption, and specifically the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea. The film takes the colonial print Een Schaman ofte Duyvel-Priester [Shaman or Devil’s Priest from the Tungus, 1692] by Nicolaes Witsen as the starting point for a spiritual journey through time. The seventeenth-century print is the first Western depiction of a shaman. It marks the beginning of a long history of racialized and infantilizing descriptions of Asian people by white Europeans. The caricature image was later used by missionaries to marginalize shamanism.
Four Months, Four Million Light Years time-travels from contemporary Dutch society and the participation of 3,418 Dutch soldiers in the deadly Korean War (1950–53) to early Dutch colonial descriptions of Asian people. The artist herself is an adoptee from Korea and grew up in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands alone around 40,000 people have been adopted from the Global South, often through child trafficking and with falsified documents. The four months of the title refer to the time it took to complete the paperwork for a Korean child in the lucrative interracial adoption industry that flourished after the Korean War, an industry that continues to live off the same colonial imagery from 300 years ago.
In the room, textile banners surround the video projection. Here, shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The work is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, family, ancestors, land, culture, and spirits.
Stefan Govaart
Expresiones de la locura: el arte de los enfermos mentales
Hans Prinzhorn
Monograph
Umbilical Cord Amulet
McCord Museum
Object
Queer Ancient Ways: A Decolonial Exploration
Zairong Xiang
Monograph
Undocumented Rumours and Disappearing Acts from Chile
María Berríos
Essay
Freiheit für Chile!
Anonymous
Photo album
I: Junto a las curadoras de la XI Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Renata Cervetto, Lisette Lagnado
Conversation
By using this website you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with our data privacy policy.
Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Born 1977 in Busan, KR – lives and works in Amsterdam, NL, and Brussels, BE
Four Months, Four Million Light Years (2020) is a shamanic healing journey addressing the colonial narratives behind interracial and international adoption, and specifically the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea. The film takes the colonial print Een Schaman ofte Duyvel-Priester [Shaman or Devil’s Priest from the Tungus, 1692] by Nicolaes Witsen as the starting point for a spiritual journey through time. The seventeenth-century print is the first Western depiction of a shaman. It marks the beginning of a long history of racialized and infantilizing descriptions of Asian people by white Europeans. The caricature image was later used by missionaries to marginalize shamanism.
Four Months, Four Million Light Years time-travels from contemporary Dutch society and the participation of 3,418 Dutch soldiers in the deadly Korean War (1950–53) to early Dutch colonial descriptions of Asian people. The artist herself is an adoptee from Korea and grew up in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands alone around 40,000 people have been adopted from the Global South, often through child trafficking and with falsified documents. The four months of the title refer to the time it took to complete the paperwork for a Korean child in the lucrative interracial adoption industry that flourished after the Korean War, an industry that continues to live off the same colonial imagery from 300 years ago.
In the room, textile banners surround the video projection. Here, shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The work is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, family, ancestors, land, culture, and spirits.
Stefan Govaart
Grupo Experimental de Cine en acción
Gabriel Peluffo
Drawing
El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno
Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala
Chronicle
Feminist Health Care Research Group
Web archive
Freiheit für Chile!
Anonymous
Photo album
„Klaus Eckschen: Hörspiel“
Die Remise
Hörspiel
Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (MSSA) in Berlin
A conversation between María Berríos and Melanie Roumiguière
Conversation
By using this website you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with our data privacy policy.
Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Born 1977 in Busan, KR – lives and works in Amsterdam, NL, and Brussels, BE
Four Months, Four Million Light Years (2020) is a shamanic healing journey addressing the colonial narratives behind interracial and international adoption, and specifically the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea. The film takes the colonial print Een Schaman ofte Duyvel-Priester [Shaman or Devil’s Priest from the Tungus, 1692] by Nicolaes Witsen as the starting point for a spiritual journey through time. The seventeenth-century print is the first Western depiction of a shaman. It marks the beginning of a long history of racialized and infantilizing descriptions of Asian people by white Europeans. The caricature image was later used by missionaries to marginalize shamanism.
Four Months, Four Million Light Years time-travels from contemporary Dutch society and the participation of 3,418 Dutch soldiers in the deadly Korean War (1950–53) to early Dutch colonial descriptions of Asian people. The artist herself is an adoptee from Korea and grew up in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands alone around 40,000 people have been adopted from the Global South, often through child trafficking and with falsified documents. The four months of the title refer to the time it took to complete the paperwork for a Korean child in the lucrative interracial adoption industry that flourished after the Korean War, an industry that continues to live off the same colonial imagery from 300 years ago.
In the room, textile banners surround the video projection. Here, shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The work is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, family, ancestors, land, culture, and spirits.
Stefan Govaart
St Sara Kali George
Delaine Le Bas
Soundscape
Género y colonialidad en busca de claves de lectura y de un vocabulario estratégico descolonial
Rita Segato
Essay
Glossary of Common Knowledge
L’Internationale Online
Glossary
I: Junto a las curadoras de la XI Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
Renata Cervetto, Lisette Lagnado
Conversation
Touching Feeling. Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Monograph
Feminist Health Care Research Group
Web archive
By using this website you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with our data privacy policy.
Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Born 1977 in Busan, KR – lives and works in Amsterdam, NL, and Brussels, BE
Four Months, Four Million Light Years (2020) is a shamanic healing journey addressing the colonial narratives behind interracial and international adoption, and specifically the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea. The film takes the colonial print Een Schaman ofte Duyvel-Priester [Shaman or Devil’s Priest from the Tungus, 1692] by Nicolaes Witsen as the starting point for a spiritual journey through time. The seventeenth-century print is the first Western depiction of a shaman. It marks the beginning of a long history of racialized and infantilizing descriptions of Asian people by white Europeans. The caricature image was later used by missionaries to marginalize shamanism.
Four Months, Four Million Light Years time-travels from contemporary Dutch society and the participation of 3,418 Dutch soldiers in the deadly Korean War (1950–53) to early Dutch colonial descriptions of Asian people. The artist herself is an adoptee from Korea and grew up in The Netherlands. In The Netherlands alone around 40,000 people have been adopted from the Global South, often through child trafficking and with falsified documents. The four months of the title refer to the time it took to complete the paperwork for a Korean child in the lucrative interracial adoption industry that flourished after the Korean War, an industry that continues to live off the same colonial imagery from 300 years ago.
In the room, textile banners surround the video projection. Here, shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The work is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, family, ancestors, land, culture, and spirits.
Stefan Govaart
Maternidades subversivas
María Llopis
Monograph
Touching Feeling. Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Monograph
El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno
Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala
Chronicle
Invitation to the Species: Cecilia Vicuña
Tamaas / Cecilia Vicuña
Podcast
Solidarity and Storytelling. Rumors against Enclosure
María Berríos
Essay
Queer Ancient Ways: A Decolonial Exploration
Zairong Xiang
Monograph
By using this website you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with our data privacy policy.
By using this website you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with our data privacy policy.