Gemengde technieken

Work in progress

Project “Cast lead”

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A project by Ingrid Rollema in ‘De Besturing’, Saturnusstraat 91, The Hague / October 2010

On April 5^th, 2010, The Hague-based, visual artist Ingrid Rollema saw a short item on the Dutch national television news that prompted her into action. The news item showed recently released footage of a horrific event that had taken place in Bagdad in July 2007. Through the lens of a camera that was placed near the gun of an American attack helicopter, the television viewers were made witness to the brutal shooting of a little group of people walking down a street. The attack killed twelve innocent civilians, including two employees of Reuters news agency. The shooting was followed by a shameless conversation between the pilot and co-pilot of the Apache helicopter, with one of the pilots saying: “Look at those dead bastards”, and the other replying: “Nice”.

The inconceivably barbarous reality that invaded her living room through the television screen shocked Ingrid Rollema so deeply that she felt compelled to respond as an artist. She rented a huge project space in the artists’ initiative and studio complex ‘De Besturing’ in The Hague. For this monumental space she designed an extraordinary theatrical setting, consisting of three adjoining sets and a grandstand facing them. Side wings with black elements, all identical in shape and reminiscent of the building components of the ‘Israeli Wall’, flank and connect the three sets.

The project’s title ‘Cast Lead’ is derived from the subject matter of the set on the left. Its backdrop is a blown-up photograph of a bombed factory in the North of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli attack (December 2^nd, 2008 – January 18^th, 2009) that cost the lives of 1417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. In front of the large photographic image, hanging from the ceiling, are 1417 ‘chimères’ (ghostly apparitions) made of clay in the colours of the Palestinian landscape.

The centre set’s backdrop is a blown-up photograph of a shattered holiday resort in the North of Gaza. The resort was shot to ruins before it could ever be opened for business. From the bottom of the photograph, snow-white ‘stairs of fame’ protrude onto the stage.

The ‘video game-like’ liquidation of twelve people in Bagdad by soldiers in an American Apache helicopter is represented in the set on the right, where a massively blown-up still from the footage that was made public by WikiLeaks in 2010 forms the backdrop.

click on the photos

set 1 set 2 set 3

For her project ‘Cast Lead’, Ingrid Rollema has chosen to employ the visual metaphor of the theatre. Once upon a time, the theatre was a place where reality was presented in a different light. It helped us to understand reality better, to interpret truth and to closely examine the events that take place around us and look at them in a wider perspective. These days, reality itself seems to have become theatre.

What influence does this drastic inversion have on our functioning as individuals and to that of the masses? What ‘role’ does each of us play while confronted with the daily portion of global war violence that is served up by the visual media? What effect does this estranging tilting of reality have on the development and functioning of our conscience? How do we evaluate the information about conflict areas we get from television, newspapers, the internet etc.? This endless stream of information (images and words) that may or may not have been manipulated, is capable of bringing about a collective memory of events.

So how do we deal with this? We may think many things can be judged intuitively, but are we able to turn these intuitive judgements into well-founded knowledge and a clear conscience?

‘Cast Lead’ is intended to be an autonomous work of art. However, it can only be completed in the presence of ‘actors’ reacting to the confrontational scenery surrounding them on stage. An integral part of the artistic concept is inviting speakers who will express their thoughts and feelings on the above mentioned problem definitions before an audience in this theatrical setting, while at the same time allowing the audience/visitors to feel they are part of the ‘set’ too.

In close collaboration with Özkan Gölpinar, Felix Villanueva, Sonja Zimmermann and Tom Dommisse, Ingrid Rollema has put together a two-week evening programme during which guest speakers will explain - live on stage - their involvement with and expertise on themes that are handed to them in the theatrical setting. Each evening, two or three speakers are invited onstage. Afterwards there will be ample opportunity for an exchange of ideas with the audience.

for the programme.