Exhibition
Pera + Flora + Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and the Ownership of History
23 Apr 2022 – 27 Nov 2022
Regular hours
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
Free admission
Address
- Campo de l’Abazia, 3549 Cannaregio
- Venice
Veneto - 30121
- Italy
Pera + Flora + Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and the Ownership of History is an official Collateral Event at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
About
About Pera + Flora + Fauna
Ownership of Indigenousness and the Social Construction of Nature
Nature – might it only be a state of mind? A dream: an idea inherited from someone who came before; an idea to relate to those who might come after?
That may depend on the social construction of nature. Re-imagining nature and indigenousness in relation to ethics and aesthetics demands a closer look at the state of the interrelations between man and nature. Some might even argue that the aesthetics of natural beauty can become a guide to socio-ethical behaviour and lead to the development of a better cultural persona.
In Art of Darkness, Rosetta Giuliani Caponetto argues that the aestheticization of native populations and the propagandist production of photographs, drawings, and written accounts, especially of African natives, indicate that Colonialism had found a powerful instrument for capturing the Western imagination in depictions of the indigenous as a dark phantasm to be conquered.
Such depictions and associated narratives continue to influence the perception of indigenousness. Therefore, visually capturing and representing nature as seen and understood in indigenous contexts and re-writing stories of indigenousness independently from the Western mainstream socio-political consciousness remains an unachievable dream.
Will this remain just a theoretical possibility or a futuristic romantic vision?
The global aestheticization of the notions of indigenousness and indigeneity are expressed in different ways. There is no consensual agreement on how to ethically or aesthetically document, archive or exhibit the historic narrative of indigenous populations across the globe, including in Malaysia.
Can indigenous populations challenge mainstream history written by the non-indigenous? Can indigenous populations achieve the liberty to collectively claim “their own history and narratives”, antagonising the dominant mainstream discourse? Can the practice of indigeneity provide strategies that resist or refuse the homogenising or divisive violence of nation-states?
Pera + Flora + Fauna intends to address these questions by drawing on different perspectives of man, nature, and their interrelation.
Commissioner
Nur Hanim Mohamed Khairuddin, General Manager of PORT,Ipoh, Perak State, Malaysia
Curators
Amir Zainorin and Khaled Ramadan
Associate Curators
Annie Jael Kwan and Camilla Boemio
Curatorial advisor
Alfredo Cramerotti
With the support of
Perak State Government, Malaysia; Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia; National Art Gallery Malaysia; Tourism Malaysia; Tourism Perak; Chamber of Public Secrets; Laterna Magica Museum, Denmark; Jambatan, Denmark;
Exhibitors
Azizan Paiman, Kamal Sabran, Kapallorek Artspace, Kim Ng, Projek Rabak, Saiful Razman, Stefano Cagol