Heterotopics at Rijksmuseum
PAVILION: LUISA UNGAR AND MILENA BONILLA

LECTURE PERFORMANCE at RIJKSMUSEUM ATELIERGEBOUW (ROOMS B &C) AND MUSEUMPLEIN
OCTOBER 13, 2017
2.30pm – 6pm
Free entrance | Limited Seating
rsvp@rijksmuseum.nl
For Heterotropics #3, Colombian artists Milena Bonilla and Luisa Ungar have been invited to develop a new version of their lecture performance Pavilion. Conceived as a site-specific intervention, the performance tackles the legacy of ‘The International Colonial and Export Exhibition’ (‘Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel Tentoonstelling’) that took place in Amsterdam in 1883.
The exhibition, the first international exposition with an official colonial theme, was organized in what is now Museumplein and on the ground floor of the Rijksmuseum – at the time under construction. Besides showing artifacts from the colonies, entire native dwellings from overseas were erected and inhabited by indigenous peoples, treating visitors to an encounter with the exotic. Allegedly, it was the great success of the fair –which attracted approximately 1 million visitors– that prompted the development of the area into the main cultural hub of the city, suggesting a continuity between colonial exhibitions and the establishment of modern museums.
Pavilion explores the traces left by a witness of the ‘Internationale Koloniale en Uitvoerhandel Tentoonstelling’ on the sites of its historical materialization. Looking into images from the exhibition, the artists elaborate on the relationship between specific documents, objects and scenarios that this observer was reflecting upon while visiting the show. Blending archival material and fiction, this lecture performance follows the specters of colonial spectacles in a short-circuit between past and present.
*
Pavilion is a Heterotropics commission and forms a part of the artists’ ongoing joint investigation of the entangled genealogy of human zoos, colonial shows and museum displays. Heterotropics is a curatorial and research platform initiated in Amsterdam by long time Vision Forum member Sara Giannini and organized in collaboration with TAAK.