Seeking accountability for a family history written 100 years ago between Copenhagen and Bangkok.
in English
60 min.
ᗰEᗩᔕᑌᖇIᑎG ᑎᗩᖇᖇᗩTIᐯE ᗯITᕼ ᗯᗩTEᖇ is an audiovisual performance oscillating between personal inheritance and historical accountability of re-telling. Between 1920 and 1922, Knud Heckscher, Sirah Foighel Brutmann’s great-grandfather, traveled from Copenhagen to Bangkok, where he worked for a Danish-British-Siamese electricity company. During these two years, he meticulously reported his daily life that includes a series of 107 letters and a collection of black and white pictures. In 2020, Sirah received these letters and pictures in inheritance.
These materials are the departure point of Sirah and Eitan work for ᗰEᗩᔕᑌᖇIᑎG ᑎᗩᖇᖇᗩTIᐯE ᗯITᕼ ᗯᗩTEᖇ , as they reveal the complex personality of Knud and the nauseating environment in which he was navigating back then.
Trigger warning: racist and antisemitic content from letters and photos produced in 1920 and 1922.
After the performance, the artists invite you to spend time together in the quiet space on the first floor (across the restroom).
Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat are creating works in the audiovisual field, installation and performance. They live and work in Brussels. Their practice focuses on the performative aspects of the moving image. In their work they aim to mark the spatial and durational potentialities of reading of images – moving or still; the relations between spectatorship and history; the temporality of narratives and memory and the material surfaces of image production. Their works have been shown in duo exhibitions in Kunsthalle Basel (CH); Argos, Brussels (BE) and CAC Delme (FR); at group exhibitions in Argos (BE); Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (DE); Portikus, Frankfurt (DE); Jeu de Paume, Paris (FR) and STUK, Leuven (BE); in film festivals such as EMAF, Osnabrück (DE); Atonal, Berlin (DE); Doc Lisboa (PT); Oberhausen Film Festival (DE); Rotterdam Film Festival (NL); Les Rencontres International, Paris and Berlin (FR/DE); New Horizons, Wrocław (PL); Images, Toronto (CA); 25FPS, Zagreb (HR).
Sirah and Eitan are currently teaching at ERG, Brussels.
by and with | Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat
dramaturgical doula | Bouchra Lamsyeh
source text and photographs | Knud Heckscher
recorded voices | Hanne Foighel and Rita Efrat
additional video material shot by | Hanne Foighel, Leni Huyghe Simon Halsberghe, Ula Sickle, Nilus Efrat and Gabriel Schenker
screen support | Sabrina Seifried
produced by | Messidor
with the support of | The Flemish Community, Morpho, Arts Centre Nona, Beursschouwburg, Kunsthal Extra City, Arts Centre Buda and Kunstenwerkplaats
