The collaboration of The True Artist Helps the World by Asking for Trust continues at Mokopōpaki on Karangahape Road in the spinoff exhibition The Dutch Embassy. Here PĀNiA! in association with Yllwbro and A.A.M. Bos interrogates relations between people and places, using humour and provocation. In painting, sculpture, installation, photography, film, foodstuffs and specially designed soundtracks, they propose a counter-narrative to the nationally sanctioned 2019 commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the landing in Aotearoa by James Cook.
Led by PĀNiA! the participating artists mischievously explore the cultural consequences of a ‘what if?’ situation in reference to the first documented European to sight our islands, the Dutch merchant Abel Janszoon Tasman. In 1642, more than 100 years before Cook’s expedition, Tasman made temporary landfall in Aotearoa, then abandoned all hope of a meaningful retail encounter with local Māori, and sailed away into the sunset, guilders intact.
Download
→ Catalogue text
Press
→ Ambassadorial Preoccupations – EyeContact