Hillside Projects
Searching for the European Roller

(Emily Mennerdahl & Jonas Böttern)

From October 19 to December 16, 2017
Opening on October 19 at 7 pm

Three works placed alongside one another raise issues around migration, territory and borders, and pose a number of questions with respect to the validity of the integration policies of several countries. In the face of the difficulties experienced by countless individuals in reaching a welcoming place and of migration conditions of continuing precariousness, and in light of the increasing number of transit areas and the series of antechambers to be crossed, one is entitled to ask if our societies are delivering a “promised land” and at what cost to those who come in search of it. In a context such as Dazibao, it is impossible to ignore how images inform these phenomena both through their forging of bias towards newcomers and their perpetuation of an ever-increasing gap between the reality of migration and the expectations of displaced individuals. Paradoxically, images and their now greatly unfettered circulation have become a primary tool for a majority of migrants.

The exhibition consists of works whose rhythms and modes of dissemination differ from the media images generally in circulation as a means to acknowledge the stories that often remain muted or are pushed out of the public sphere. Following a number of projects presented by Dazibao that address current social issues, the work of Hubert Caron-Guay, Hillside Projects (Emily Mennerdahl & Jonas Böttern) and Lisl Ponger invites us to analyse the narrative systems and images that inform our understanding of the world.

Hillside Projects

Hillside Projects is a research and production collective made up of Emily Mennerdahl and Jonas Böttern. Working in Stockholm, the two artists develop interdisciplinary projects whose focus is natural changes, which in their work become a metaphor for sensitive sociopolitical questions. Hillside Projects is particularly interested in the concept of knowledge and in authorities of this knowledge. They work regularly with thinkers and researchers in other fields in order to broaden the spectrum of their investigations.

Searching for the European Roller, a project in evolution since 2011, takes the form here of a performance/reading, a video and an installation made up of various artefacts tracing the history of a specific species of bird. Long ago, the European Roller lived and reproduced freely in northern Europe. For no apparent reason, the species slowly went into steep decline and its last known nesting in Sweden dates from 1967. Recently, however, by breaking up the landscape and designing specific environments to attract the bird, scientists are attempting to reintegrate the species in Sweden. An in-depth study of cartography and of this bird’s migratory models has led Hillside Projects to analyse this desire to reintroduce a species, and to wonder why some species are more desirable than others, or have irrevocable legitimacy in a given territory. The history of the European Roller thus became a metaphorical starting point for a broader investigation into the notions of borders, limits and migration, as well as the notions of belonging, acceptance, and partiality.

― F.C.

This exhibition is presented by Dazibao on the occasion of the RIDM.

On October 19, 2017 at 6:30 pm