TELL IT THE WAY THEY TELL IT [2009]

Videostills: Andreas Rosforth // Installationviews : Timme Hovind, Charlotteborg Kunsthal, DK.

Conceptual/durational performance, videoinstallation // HD DVCPRO 16:9, 6-channel video w/sound // 15:00 min. loop ]
3 days previous performance: 1 artist, a filmcrew [director, director of photography, lightcrew, editor, set designer, dancers, costume designer etc.]
Installation: 6-screen synchronized videoinstallation w. sound, meditation pillows.

I was invited to exhibit in Korea, presented as a “korean adoptee artist”. What a peculiar stereotype! I felt under the eyes of somebody else,
but foremost I found my work to be used in a game of guilt and diaspora politics. Refusing to enact this given identity, I hired a filmcrew to
visualize my ideas for a piece, performing accordingly to their formal and aesthetic decisions, overruling any objections I might have.
The curator from each place the piece is exhibited make the final decisions about the installation.

Of course, my thoughts and my hands are very much in the project, but rather filtered, collectively distorted.
What one sees is therefore not solely my artist´s visions (if that is ever the case?) but rather the cultural apparatus behind.
The title is appropriated from Trinh T. Min Ha´s book ”Woman, Native, Other”.

Credits:
Artist/vocals/edit: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Director: Niels Kjær Olsen
Cinematography: Adam Jandrup
Sound: b9
Costumes: Anne Werner
Light: Soeren Knud
Choreography/dancer: Ida Elisabeth Larsen
Light assistants: Allan Køldal, Aske Wagner
Light/Grip: Michel Copeland
Assistant/dancer: Joy Sun Ra Pawl Hoyle
Dancers: Ida Marie Kloster, Cecilie Kvorning
Still Photography: Andreas Johnsen
Runner: Christian Winther Christensen
Curator: Lee Min Young/Stenka Helfach