Toko Waar Is Thuis
(2020 - current)
Previously named Elders from Elsewhere
Proces-based art project.
Artistic research to regenerate a lost narrative. About landscapes, identity and intergenerationality. Juxtaposing historic missionary travel accounts with autobiographic documentary footage. Exploring a myth of origin through essayistic installations, audio and video.
From the internal world of the maker through a search for history, decolonisation, the ancestral natural landscape and intercultural symbols, reclaiming origin myths. Concluding with an universal longing for a deep connection with ancestors, nature and natural sites/genius loci, here, the toko is a hub within an ecosystem of stories. Like a grocery store, it connects the consumers, through seeds, spices and tropical fruits with the landscape.
Supported by:
Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie
Instituut voor Beeld & Geluid
KF Hein fonds
The following video portret was made by Roel van Tour, interview Maarten Westerveen, concept by Koehorst in 't Veld for Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie during early stages of my research:
In the following talk show on Representation within audiovisual design practices, I was asked about my project a year in. At Dutch Design Week 2021, moderated by Nelly Dos Reis for Stimuleringsfonds:
The motherland is a dream.
Mountainous, hidden in fog with grumbling sulfur bubbling up from her hot springs.
BACKGROUND
War and colonial conflicts have left big holes in many Indonesian family histories, silencing the social memory. In order to understand my own identity and to come to true authenticity as a maker I want to go further back than these conflicts. All the way back. To the soil that feeds the plants. The dark sand. The volcano. Back to the natural landscape of my ancestral tribe.
PRESENTATION FORMS
I am experimenting with different kinds of process-based presentation methods that can develop and evolve over time. Starting from a fragmented mind, embracing complexity and the non-linear/rhizomatic workings of the brain, unraveling slowly into a story.
Artist Talks:
1 November 2022 KF Hein Fonds
20 October 2021 Stimuleringsfonds at Dutch Design Week
Published writings':
Blog #1 - Vertrekpunt
Blog #2 - De jonge Walian
Blog #3 - Er zit een kracht in de berg
(all published at K.F. Hein Fonds)
Exhibitions (physical):
Ik Kies Mijn Kleur
at A0 expo | April 2020 Daalsetunnel, Utrecht
Elders
at KunstKoers De Nijverheid | Mei - sep 2021, Utrecht
Ergens Anders / Somehow Different
at Cineart x NNF | okt 2021, Utrecht
and at Atelierroute Utrecht | okt 2021, Utrecht
and at Kunsthal Kloof | nov 2021, Utrecht
Milking It
at Exhibition Research Lab | may 2022, ACPA Den Hague
Een fragment uit onze toko 01
& Een fragment uit onze toko 02
as part of To Belong group exhibition at Troef | aug 2023
Roem Leiden
Levering 01: Van Fruit en Vulkaan (Toko Waar Is Thuis)
15 min. essay film with environment
Set in Teylers Museum, Netherland's oldest museum funded from world-explorations and the urge to collect objects, this video work gains an extra layer of consequence.
during Boring Festival weekend | jan 2024
Teylers Museum, Haarlem
Shelves full with stacks of spice trays. A buzzing refrigerator with chilled tropical fruits in cling film. Large bales of rice lie between stacked boxes of stock. You can walk between the exotic seasonings and foods. But, unlike in real life, this shop has little color. In Toko W.I.T. it is sober. You get an alienating feeling, as if life is missing. What's real? Where's life?
