The Memories are Present

The Memories are Present took place at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam from 16 June to 12 August 2012 and was curated by Kerstin Winking (SMBA). The participating artists in the exhibition were Artun Alaska Arasli, Pauline M’barek and Christoph Westermeier. The exhibition The Memories are Present and the video programme Really Exotic took place in the context of Project 1975. The focus in this exhibition was on the museum as a bearer and communicator of knowledge and interrogated institutional divisions. Central attention was paid to the ways in which different institutions collect, categorise and display objects. The exhibition challenged the binary oppositions still prevalent in many institutions between “art objects” and “ethnographic objects”. The video programme Really Exotic focused on the notion of the exotic experience. Presented were works that could convey or tell the viewer more about this type of experience. The videoprogram was organised by Joram Kraaijeveld and Kerstin Winking (SMBA) in collaboration with Marthe Singelenberg (Filmtheater Kriterion).