The Iziko South African National Gallery is proud to host DIS-EASE: a new generation of video art from the Rijksakademie archives. Taking place from 6 April until 28 June 2009, the video compilation screening reflects on the power of the medium, both in terms of content and articulation, as explored by some twenty-seven artists of seventeen different nationalities.

While representing countries ranging from Brazil to Taiwan, the artists that make up the show produced these works, for the most part, during residencies at the Rijksakademie in the Netherlands. The works carry explicit cultural overtones and idiosyncratic nuances that suggest the artists’ origins, but what begins to reveal itself is how what we have come to know as globalisation has permeated the very fabric of this so-called ‘village’. Collected together under the title ‘dis-ease’, the videos on this exhibition manifest a sense of unease and disquiet.

The participating artists in this compilation are as follows:

Ahmet Ögüt – Turkey • Chiara Pirito – Italy • Cristina Lucas – Spain • Erik Olofsen – Netherlands • Fernando Sánchez Cástillo- Spain • Francessca Grilli – Italy • Im Go Eun - South Korea • Greg Streak - South Africa / Netherlands • Guido van der Werve – Netherlands • Jakup Ferri – Kosova • Kuang Yu Tsui – Taiwan • Marco Pando – Peru • Marianne Flotron – Switzerland • Maze de Boer – Netherlands • Meiro Koizumi – Japan • Meiya Lin – China • Michael Blum – Europe • Mounira Al Solh – Lebanon • Nicoline van Harskamp – Netherlands • Owen Oppenheimer - United Kingdom • Paulien Oltheten – Netherlands • Persijn Broersen /Margit Lukács – Netherlands • Sascha Pohle – Germany • Sefer Memisoglu – Turkey • Siree van der Velde – Netherlands • Sookoon Ang – Singapore • Zachary Formwalt - US

Kuang-Yu Tsui from Taiwan is the feature artist on the exhibition. A separate screening of seven of his video works takes us on a personal journey of the artist as he engages with his environment. In Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin Temple and Penetration: The Perceptive, the artist has various objects thrown at the back of his head by someone out of screen. Each time an object strikes his head he tries to guess what it is. The work is both amusing and nihilistic. Kuang-Yu’s work is a testament to the parasitic nature of globalisation – the manner in which it displaces and attempts to simulate in order to control.

DIS-EASE was curated by Durban-based artist and curator, Greg Streak, while on a visit to Amsterdam in early 2008. Streak, representing the artist run initiative PULSE, partnered with the Rijksakademie and Bank Gallery, Durban, to produce the show.

return to press release page>>