Broersen & Lukács
Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács live and work in Amsterdam.

On Screening: Mastering Bambi
HD Film, 12'30'' - 2010

Walt Disney's 1942 classic animation film 'Bambi' is well known for its distinct main characters – a variety of cute, anthropomorphic animals. However, an important but often overlooked protagonist in the movie is nature itself: the pristine wilderness as the main grid on which Disney structured his 'Bambi'. One of the first virtual worlds was created here: a world of deceptive realism and harmony, in which man is the only enemy. Disney strived to be true to nature, but he also used nature as a metaphor for human society. In his view, deeply rooted in European romanticism, the wilderness is threatened by civilization and technology. The forest, therefore, is depicted as a 'magic well', the ultimate purifying 'frontier', where the inhabitants peacefully coexist. Interestingly, the original 1924 Austrian novel 'Bambi, A Life in the Woods' by Felix Salten (banned in 1936 by Hitler) shows nature (and human society) more as a bleak, Darwinist reality of competition, violence and death.
Broersen and Lukács recreate the model of Disney's pristine vision, but they strip the forest of its harmonious inhabitants, the animals. What remains is another reality, a constructed and lacking wilderness, where nature becomes the mirror of our own imagination. The soundtrack is made by Berend Dubbe and Gwendolyn Thomas. They've reconstructed Bambi's music, in which they twist and fold the sound in such a way that it reveals the dissonances in the movie. Andrea Alessi, Artslant 2010.


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2014 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL On The Move / GL Strand, Kopenhagen, Denmark American Sandwich (solo) / Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia You Imagine What You Desire / ChongQing Air, ChongQing China # 1 / Foam at Felix, Felix Meritus, Amsterdam, NL Beyond Sunset & Sunrise / Rencontres Internationales, Haus Der Kunsten Der Welt, Berlin Constructions / Rencontres Internationales, Gaite Lyrique, Paris, Fr Constructions / Bureau Europa, Maastricht, NL Coming Soon 2013 Akinci, Amsterdam, NL The Sun That Never Set (solo) / Instituo Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paolo, Brasil Mostra 3FM / AkBank, Istanbul Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey Mastering Bambi (solo) / Kunsthalle Tallinn, Estonia, Shadows of a Doubt / International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL Beyond Sunset & Sunrise / GEM, The Hague, NL Yes Naturally / Fundament Foundation, Tilburg, NL Slow Burn / Art International Istanbul, Turkey KW14, Tilburg, NL The Rise and Fall 2012 Moma, Moscow, RU Vanitas / Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France Rencontres Paris/Madrid/Berlin / CEAC, Guangzhou, CN The Red Snowball / Kunsthalle Detroit, Detroit, US Light Biennial / Catalyst, Belfast, N-IRL Fata Morgana / Casa Encendida, Madrid, ESP Parataxis / ZERO1 Biennial, San Jose, USA Seeking Silicon Valley / Art Cologne, New Positions, DE News from Nowhere (solo) / MOTI, Breda, NL Rollercoaster / Museum de Paviljoens, Almere, NL Grote Kunst voor Kleine Mensen / Media Arts Biennial, Australia Experimenta / Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR Hors Pistes 2011 Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Cultured Nature / Museum of Old and New Art Tasmania Utopia Now / Museum de Paviljoens, Almere, NL De Kracht van Heden / Moving Image, London, UK / Quanzhou, China The Red Snowball continues / Ogilvy Art, New York, USA Live Video / Daeugu Art Center, Korea What is Art worth? / Berwick Film & Media Arts, UK / Hidde van Seggelen Gallery, London, UK Over your cities grass will grow / I+CAS, Sevilla, Spain New Languages.

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