INSTALLATION: A Letter from your Prime Minister
Het Ketelhuis, Amsterdam |
Thursday 15 June |
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During the Cineblend festival the installation 'A letter from your Prime Minister' by Dorien Pfauth, Gemma Groot en Brigitte Borm will be on show in the foyer of cinema Het Ketelhuis. This installation is freely accesible during opening hours.
A letter from your Prime Minister
This video installation reacts to the open letter published by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on January 22nd, 2017. The letter refers to migrants in an inexplicit manner, suggesting them to leave if they do not behave in a ‘normal’ way. Even though the letter might be conceived of as election talk, aimed at winning votes, the words and their intent endure.
The installation dwells on what would have happened if every Dutch citizen had physically received this letter from their Prime Minister, in particular people with a migrant background.
To explore this idea, several bi-cultural Dutch are filmed whilst they are hearing the letter, most for the very first time. In silence, their listening confronts us with the effects these kind of words and rhetorics can have.
Participants and visitors alike are invited to enter into a dialogue and write back a letter to Mark Rutte. After all, isn’t a letter supposed to be responded to?
This project is a collaboration of Dorien Pfauth, Gemma Groot and Brigitte Borm (Netherlands)
Netherlands | 2017 | 19 min
Dutch spoken, English subtitled
