09 july 2024, Flor Linckens
Last chance: the virtual wildernesses of Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen
Until 13 July, AKINCI in Amsterdam is presenting the exhibition ‘I Wan’na Be Like You’ by the artist duo Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen. This exhibition includes the eponymous video work that was previously displayed at the Grote Kerk Alkmaar earlier this year.
Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen have been collaborating since 2001. They both studied graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, followed by a degree in Fine Arts and Design at the Sandberg Instituut. The duo subsequently completed residencies at institutions such as the Chinese European Art Center, The International Artists Studio Program in Stockholm, the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
The duo’s work explores various tensions. They examine the ways in which fiction dictates reality and vice versa, as well as the relationship between people and their immediate environment: nature and society. How is this relationship influenced by the vast amount of media we consume daily, both consciously and unconsciously? Their work aims to show how reality, fiction, and (mass) media are intrinsically intertwined. They emphasise this by combining filmed or photographed footage with digital animation and media images. Their works often create parallel worlds, reflecting our society and visual culture. They are particularly interested in how people experience and construct nature, addressing themes like endless reproduction and our focus on ornamentation and superficiality. Because although our screens are boundless and timeless, they also offer a flattened reality. We are spending more time in our virtual worlds, which affects our relationship with nature.
In their earlier video work "Fix the Variable, Exclude the Accidental, Eliminate the Impure, Unravel the Tangled, Discover the Unknown" (2021), the artists were inspired by the famous Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, the first scientist to devise a uniform system to classify living organisms such as plants and animals, as a way of controlling them. Viewed through a contemporary lens, Linnaeus’ classification system is far from objective, especially in his descriptions of human “varieties” (he did not use the word race) and idealised depictions of tropical plant species, although Linnaeus himself regarded his rigid system as the epitome of objectivity. In Lukács and Broersen’s video, a series of hyper-realistic, virtual, dancing plants appear almost lifelike, evoking a sense of uncanny valley. Over time, the movements become increasingly wild and menacing. The choreography, based on the movements of rebellious crowds and natural forces, is set to an abrupt transition from concert pianist Daria van den Bercken's piano music to protest music by American revolutionary and composer Frederic Rzewski. The near-atonal music is not synchronised with the visuals, offering a different combination of image and sound each time.
In the film, this digital reconstruction of nature serves as the backdrop for a dancing avatar, a mysterious ghostly figure that is not entirely human, performing a choreography by Andreas Hannes. The avatar moves to a new version of 'I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)’ from Disney’s Jungle Book (1967), reinterpreted by David Lukács as an homage to the New Orleans jazz tradition that Disney borrowed from. Additionally, Jamal Bijnoe and Orlando Ceder of the Black Harmony choir rearranged the melody into the song 'Na Mi’ (‘I Am’ in Sranan, a language spoken in Suriname), a powerful indictment of the racist and colonial undertones of the original while celebrating their ancestral history. The work reflects on the exploitation and categorisation of nature (and human beings) by colonial powers and its implications in our current times.
The works of Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen have been showcased in various museums, (film) festivals, and television broadcasts worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, FOAM Amsterdam, IFFR, the New York Film Festival, Lowlands, World Expo Shanghai, Rencontres d'Arles and the Sydney Biennale. This year, they represent the Netherlands at the Gwangju Biennale. Lukács and Broersen have also created site-specific works for the elevator of the Stedelijk Museum and a piece for the North-South metro line in Amsterdam. Besides films, animations and videos, the duo also creates photographs, screen prints and wall works.
