Break open layers of colonial, Western narrative in the performative workshop Tropical Object, Turns, by delving into the experiential world of the ethnographic objects.

Tropical Object, Turns focuses on ethnographic objects from the Global South that were taken out of their original habitats and isolated in Western museums in colonial times. Lee’s research method aims to release these objects from their isolated and suppressive western narrative. In the workshop the public is invited to collaboratively re-read the tropical objects.

By engaging with these objects through gestural research new relationships are created. All actions together form a materialized choreography in which the public co-creates a new speculative landscape. Lee’s work articulates that objects are mediators between us and our environment. Only by deeply engaging with them can we learn more about ourselves and our changing environment.

The workshop is part of the public program of the exhibition Creating the Commons, which looks at co-creation in art and science and is a collaboration with the VU Open Science Program.

The workshop will take place in the Art Science gallery in the NU-building.