Electric Palm Tree Strikes Again

THE DEMON OF COMPARISONS

A project by Electric Palm Tree

With: Heman Chong, Hafiz, Beom Kim, Sung Hwan Kim, Tibor Hajas, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Tadasu Takamine, and with special contributions by Philippe Rekacewicz and Grace Samboh
Curated by: Binna Choi in collaboration with Kyongfa Che and Cosmin Costinas; exhibition design in collaboration with Susanne Pietsch

Date: 28 March – 17 May 2009
Opening: Friday 27 March from 5 to 7 p.m., accompanied by the lecture-performance Finders Keepers by Jeuno Kim.

'The Demon of Comparisons' is an association of subjective positions relating in various ways to larger social and political frameworks, to power and cultural constructions. Placing emphasis on the issue of individual agency in a landscape defined by questions of national and cultural identities, The Demon of Comparisons questions the kind of collectivity these subjects can form.

The title is a translation of a phrase from Jose Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere, "el demonio de las comparaciones", also used by Benedict Anderson as the title of his book, where it is rendered as The Specter of Comparisons. An original and insightful thinker, Anderson questioned the patterns and the meeting points that are to be found throughout geographies, times and power structures that lead to formations of identities and various senses of belonging. Our translation remains anchored in this area of interest, but is intended to add the potential of the polisemy, indeed the spectres, of the original Spanish word, 'demonio', in dealing with the subjectivity of one's experience of culture and power.

The Demon of Comparisons grew out of exchanges and discussions during 'Open Circuit #1: Yogyakarta', organized by Electric Palm Tree in September 2008 in Indonesia. During the week-long workshop, participants shared and negotiated their experiences and vocabularies of social transformation from their respective backgrounds.

The exhibition is in dialogue with 'The Antagonistic Link' running at Casco, Utrecht, through the same period. The opening takes place on Saturday, 28 March at 5 p.m., accompanied by the first staging of Ongoing propositions under different conditions by Sönke Hallmann & Achim Lengerer.

The seminar of The Demon of Comparisons will be held on April 4 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with contributions by Michele Faguet, Patrick D. Flores, Vit Havranek, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Ahmad bin Mashadi, David Riff. More information to be followed in the next e-mail newsletter and the website of SMBA.