Nicoline van Harskamp
FILTER: VIOLENCE AND ITS COUNTERSTRIKES
Throughout his life the Dutch anarchist Karl Max Kreuger corresponded with hundreds of like-minded people worldwide. The letters were stored in the archives of the International Institute of Social History after his death. One of the letter writers was Nicoline van Harskamp. For a year she delved into Kreuger’s legacy to envision the personal and political lives of several of the correspondents. She chose forty letters from the period 1989-1999, gave the authors pseudonyms, analyzed their handwriting, turned them into characters and reconstructed their life stories. She then searched for actors to play the characters, brought them together and recorded that in a video work, giving a fictional portrayal of what could happen if the letter writers were to meet each other today.
Artwork
Yours in solidarity
video-installation 2013
Nicoline van Harskamp (Netherlands, 1975)
Nicoline van Harskamp observes structures of power and political resistance. She uses found language: speeches, texts, interviews, and conversations. These she processes into scripts that form the basis of her videos and staged debates.