Niva to Nenets: The making of a road-movie as a strategy for inclusive knowledge sharing

Niva to Nenets is an interactive road-movie that questions gift-giving and other possible pitfalls along the proverbial road to decolonization. It is part of an artistic research project that explores how art-making can inquire, discuss and encourage decolonization processes. A road-trip from Belgium towards Arctic Russia in a Lada Niva facilitated conditions for interesting circumstances and conversations. To legitimize a focus on us-and-them dichotomies and on the approach of artists working with indigenous peoples, the premise of this road-movie is my intention to give my Niva to the Nenets. As a reindeer herding people in the north-west of Russia, the Nenets struggle from the effects of accelerated climate change, rapid modernization, and the impacts of oil- and gas exploration on their herding grounds. The idea of giving them an old car, despite the fact that the usefulness of this gift was confirmed by the Nenets organization Yasavey, gave entrance to the sharing of many opinions, concerns and other responses. These responses are recorded with GoPro-camera’s, and, combined with recordings of the travel, form the content of an experimental documentary that balances between coherent storytelling and two basic conditions of decolonization: freedom of opinion and freedom of action.

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Toegankelijkheid:Open