Positions #5

The fifth edition of Positions includes new and recent work by Mercedes Azpilicueta, Anna Dasović, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Mounira Al Solh and Quinsy Gario. The five exhibitions present some of the most compelling artistic practice in the Netherlands today. All five artists work with forms of storytelling, witnessing and testimony. They re-introduce forgotten or silenced narratives using evidence drawn from personal histories and official archives. Positions #5: Telling Untold Stories invites visitors to encounter the politics of story-telling in myriad ways. 

Mercedes Azpilicueta presents two textile installations, costumes, props and new animations. Her starting point is Lucía Miranda, a figure central to the foundational myth of colonial South America by the 19th century Argentinian writer Eduarda Mansilla. The images, sounds and figures blend references from the 16th century to today, including descriptions of the first cautiva—European women captured by indigenous people—and Mansilla’s text, where Miranda and the indigenous protagonists are presented as strong and empowered. 

Anna Dasović’s practice centres on on the structures that make genocidal violence visible. The exhibition focuses on her ongoing research into the Dutch government’s decision to deploy troops to safeguard the UN-designated safe area Srebrenica in July 1995 in Eastern Bosnia. The fall of Srebrenica resulted in the massacre of 8.372 people. Through photographs, video and installation, Dasović looks at Srebrenica as both a place and a word, and at the language and images used to describe it, before and after its fall. 

Sǒ bàtú project, (2016-ongoing), translates as “to bathe one’s ears,” in the Kenyaŋ (Kenyang) language spoken in the cross-river basin of Manyu, Cameroon. Through water and sound Em’kal Eyongakpa imagines a refuge within the central galleries of the museum. Household materials, plant fibres, calabashes and mycelium (fungi) landscapes create a sculptural environment hosting a multichannel sound composition that interacts with live sounds from the sculptures. The work draws on folklore from Manyu and beyond, where “other worlds” can be found in caves used as hideouts during times of peril.

Since 2012, Mounira Al Solh has made drawings and notes on yellow legal paper during personal conversations with people forced to leave their homes. A selection of these drawings will be shown alongside tents and embroideries, made with the help of Lebanese women as well as those from the foundation Stichting Ik Wil in Eindhoven. Al Solh also premieres her film Freedom is a habit I am trying to learn (2019), for which the artist spent 24 hours with four women Rogine, Waad, Hanin and Zeina, who left Syria and Lebanon for different parts of the world. 

Quinsy Gario explores the mechanisms of storytelling, historiography and the postcolonial Dutch Caribbean. Gario visited Soualiga (St. Maarten/St. Martin) and Curacao this summer together with Glenda Martinus, his mother, where they made several works. These are presented alongside an installation by Family Connection, a collective of Gario’s family that has been working since 2005. They look at the 1969 uprising on Curacao and the way history is remembered and shared. Gario also reconfigures two installations Bevrijdingskunst (Liberation Art, 2017) and Black, Basically a Genealogical Materialist Analysis (2016).

Positions #5 is curated by Nick Aikens (research curator) with Evelien Scheltinga (assistant curator); production by Evelien Scheltinga with Inge Borsje, Antoine Derksen and Diederik Koppelmans; mediation with Hilde van der Heijden.

Performance Programme:
On 7th March 2020 a day-long programme will include new performances and interventions from the artists.

Partners: 
The exhibition is made possible with support from Stichting Ammodo and production support from Mondriaan Fonds. Partners include TextielLab Tilburg (Mercedes Azpilicueta), Framer Framed, Amsterdam (Anna Dasović) Stichting Ik Wil, Eindhoven; If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Amsterdam; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (all Mounira Al Solh) and The University of St. Maarten, Vereninging Ons Suriname, Amsterdam and Wereld Museum Rotterdam, (Quinsy Gario).