– 2016/2019 – A multimedia project including audio, video and text (and unexpectedly intolerant fortune cookies).
This project stems from an idea to try and teach people Dutch by using hate-speech as study material; to repurpose it as something useful: a tool for reflecting on identity and integration. In 2016 I used myself as a case study to create an initial course (I hate you all welcome!) based on right-wing discourses and ultranationalist rhetoric since, as a migrant, these also applied to me.
From this initial phase, another iteration emerged (Coarse on language) in which the spotlight was set on more subtle aspects of dutch culture: attitudes, miscommunication, double entendres and Marktplaats for some reason… Although different in content, this second phase was also envisioned as a means to discuss attitudes around refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in relation to our own identities while also providing a real language teaching experience.
These were the first steps in engaging with the subject of right-wing politics in this fashion. The main goal is to use the platforms that the art-world provides (or skip them altogether) in order to potentiate change and action outside of them, back into the issue that the works draw their subject from.
Thanks to Olivier van Nooten for developing and teaching the course. And thank you to Gherardo, Amy, Nikos and Lavinia for taking part in this iteration. This particular session was made possible by the Mondriaan Fonds and below you can see it presented in their Prospects&Concepts Pavilion at Art Rotterdam 2019.
