Art house SYB: Tristes Tropiques project - October2010>2011

Tristes Tropiquesillustrations hors texte

Tristes Tropiquesplates alongside the next

sources, developments, & the making of

In 2010 the french-dutch artist Laurence Aëgerter was invited to do an six-week artist’s residency in Kunsthuis (Art House) SYB, in the Frysian village of Beetsterzwaag. Sensing that a cooperative project in this context might lead to a conceptually richer result, she decided to ask dutch artist Ronald van Tienhoven to participate.Their residency resulted in an elaborate communal photography project that ran parallel to the photo manifestation Noorderlicht, one of the foremost venues related to art and photography in the Netherlands.Deciding on developing an alternative form of ‘counter exploration’, Aëgerter and Van Tienhoven chose the seminal ethnographical book Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss as the point of departure.

Claude Lévi-Strauss - Tristes TropiquesÉditions Plon, Paris, 1955

Claude Lévi-Strauss1908-2009

“Possibly the time will come we discover that the same logic is the source of both mythical and scientific thinking, en that Man has always thought well.”

"Peut-être découvrirons-nous un jour que la même logique est à l'oeuvre dans la pensée mythique et dans la pensée scientifique, et que l'homme a toujours pensé aussi bien."

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Tristes Tropiques is a memoir, first published in France in 1955by the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. It documents his travels and anthropological work, focusing principally on Brazil. Although ostensibly a travelogue, the work is infused with philosophical reflections and ideas linking many academic disciplines, such as sociology, history, and literature.

Lévi-Strauss’ reflections regarding the life of Brazilian indiansin a rapidly changing society, and the transformation in people’sperception vis-à-vis other cultures throughout the 20th centuryled us to use Tristes Tropiques as conceptual and visual point ofreference for our six-week residency in September and October 2010.Thursday, September

After several weeks of preparation and research, we embarked on the difficult task to find village people willing to participate in the project. With the assistance of local residents who are active in the Kunsthuis SYB organisation, we were able to interest a large number of people of both genders and all ages in reenacting the Brazilian scenes and portraits shot by Lévi-Strauss in the 1930s.

All sixty-three photographs published by Lévi-Strauss in the first 1955 edition of Tristes Tropiques were remade in the immediate vicinity of the village. Locations were chosen as much as possible with the original settings in mind. The photo sessions took three days in all. Nearly forty people participated as model in these reenactments; many others assisted in the project’s production.

Nearly a year after our residency in Beetsterzwaag we produced an artist’s book based on the original photo appendix in Tristes Tropiques. Tristes Tropiques - Illustrations hors texte is an exact facsimile of the original appendix: typeface, numbering, layout and content are identical. The publication consists of two booklets in a transparent holder: the meticulously reprinted original appendix, and our identical version with the Beetsterzwaag photographs.

On October 9, 2011, we presented the artist’s book at the Lloyd Hotel’s Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam. On November 11 Tristes Tropiques - Illustrations hors texte was presented by Filigranes Editions during Paris Photo. In the course of April 2012 the book will be presented by Salon für Kunstbuch in Vienna. Other venues and presentations will follow in the course of this year.

bororo

caduveo

tupi-kawahib

nambikwara

four tribes visited by Lévi-Strauss during his travels through Central Brazil

caduveo

nambikwara

bororo

tupi-kawahib

Four tribes in a Frysian setting - Beetsterzwaag and environs

CADUVEO

BORORO

NAMBIKWARA

TUPI-KAWAHIB

PHOTO SESSIONS | DAY ONE

PHOTO SESSIONS | DAY TWO

PHOTO SESSIONS | DAY THREE

artist’s book

Tristes Tropiquesillustrations hors texte

ISBN 13 : 978-2-35046-224-0Format : 150 x 210 (2x)

144 pages (each book 72 pages)two paperbacks in plastic holder

2 x 63 photos black and whitesigned and numbered

Art house SYB: Tristes Tropiques project - October2010>2011

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