Monumental installation by Canadian artist Stan Douglas in De Pont is top-heavy in historical significance

The installation 2011 ≠ 1848 by Stan Douglas (Vancouver, 1960), which was shown last year at the Venice Biennale and now in De Pont Museum in Tilburg, is very ambitious. With five panoramic photos (each 150 x 300 cm), Douglas wants to make a connection between protests that took place in various places around the world in 2011 and the European revolutions that were fought for democratic freedoms in 1848. The installation zooms in on riots in four locations: Tunis, Vancouver, London and New York.

Douglas reconstructed the events like a forensic detective and with the utmost meticulousness. On January 23, 2011, people gathered in groups on the streets of Tunis, sitting on rugs, talking around burning candles and being closely watched by police and the army. It was the beginning of the Arab Spring.

On June 15, 2011, riots broke out in otherwise quiet Vancouver when the national ice hockey team the Canucks lost a game to the Boston Bruins: cars were set on fire and buildings were destroyed. The London Riots on August 9, 2011 followed the police shooting death of a black man, Mark Duggan. A sit-in on Brooklyn Bridge in New York on October 10, 2011 would herald the start of the global Occupy Wall Street movement.

Distanced and cold

Three of the five photos in the series were taken from a high position, alone Vancouver, June 15, 2011 was photographed at eye level. No matter how far away, the details in the photos are razor-sharp, down to the lines of a sock or a piece of paper on the street. The digitally manipulated photos show an alienating hyper reality. The events are frozen in time, something that is of course always the case with photos, but here to the extreme. Despite the violent action of demonstrators, this photographic world is distanced and cold.

The people in the photos are extras in a re-enactment directed by Douglas of scenes as he found them in old photo archives. Douglas then edited the acted scenes into photographs of the various locations, creating a photorealistic composition.

The result is absurdist, the people resemble Lego figures with clenched fists, their mouths open in a mute scream.

London, August 9, 2011 differs slightly from the rest. Douglas photographed the London location, Pembury Estate in Hackney, from a helicopter himself. He combined the photos with video images from Sky News. By London, August 9, 2011 are two photos. The panoramic effect here is even stronger than in the other three photos and the perspective distance is even greater, but the London scenes still look less artificial and alienating.

Revolutions

The reasons for the protests at the four locations are varied, from anti-totalitarianism and anti-racism to anti-capitalism and, in the case of Vancouver, seemingly irrational, pure anarchy.

The question then is what all this has to do with 1848, where according to the title 2011 ≠ 1848 the events of 2011 are not the same, but somewhat. The revolutions of 1848 largely failed, as did the Arab Spring. It is unclear whether Douglas wants to say that revolutions do not bring improvement, or that we live in an unstable world, or whether he wants to encourage reflection on historical events.

The viewer does not have time for such a reflection. These photo works are too complex for that, too overwhelming in size and technical capabilities, and top-heavy with all kinds of complicated historical references.

This is further reinforced by the second part of the exhibition, the video installation ISDN. ISDN is a fictional, edited one call and responserap by two male English and two female Egyptian rappers. Just like with the panoramic photos, a lot of knowledge is needed to understand anything about this work.

Tranquil landscapes

In the hallway of De Pont, behind the so-called Wolhokken, there are earlier photographic works by Douglas, smaller in size, from the museum’s collection. They are tranquil images of landscapes and unfinished modernist residential areas. There are no people in these photos. The Nootka Wood Products Mill at McBride Bay (1996), from the series Nootka Sounddepicts a sawmill and destructive logging in British Columbia.

Nootka Sound is about the destruction of the landscape by the Western colonizer and the exploitation of the indigenous population. Those original inhabitants never relinquished their habitat on the west coast of Canada and are still fighting for their sovereignty.

Douglas here effectively thematizes Canada in the dual role of colonizer and colonized country. He aims for a critical analysis of reality and he wants to show how the past affects the present. With the monumental, global installation 2011 ≠1848 he may miss this goal.

Also read the interview with Stan Douglas about his installation 2011 ≠1848