IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT IF YOU COME AGAIN, ONLY NEXT TIME DON’T BRING ANY GEAR, EXCEPT A TEA KETTLE…

The multi-channel installation ‘It will be all right if you come again, only next time don’t bring any gear, except a tea kettle…’ (1994-2004) explores the creation of new mythologies in the wake of Western imperialism. It is based on an actual event, the screening of the film ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) which a missionary organised for the people of Irian Jaya. The interweaving of archive material and shots of natural settings in New Guinea with film images of the Austrian hills evokes a shift of meaning from typical Hollywood (mis)representation to a reinterpretation of one’s own surroundings and an attempt to imagine the other’s context; a stereotyping mechanism which in this case works in both directions. (Source: S.M.A.K.)