Installations
From the 8th of September to the 24th of November, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana presented a comprehensive programme featuring installations, archives and performances by the participants of the edition.
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Kenyalang Circus: Reconciliation
- TypeInstallation
- ParticipantMarcos Kueh
- VenueThe See of Ègara
Kenyalang Circus: Reconciliation, 2024 © Marcos Kueh. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana /Cecília Coca
The Malaysian artist Marcos Kueh’s body of work reflects upon the importance of textiles in his Bornean culture and questions the colonial (and post-colonial) narratives that still shape identities in Southeast Asia. His practice employs tools like satire and humour in an attempt to ‘cure’ the dominant (self-)perception of Borneo as a “third-world” society, to use an outdated term. His ancestors used textiles to express and preserve their myths, hopes and dreams. In his artistic practice, Kueh, who first studied graphic design, employs traditional Malaysian techniques as well as emerging and experimental methodologies; he does so with the intent to demonstrate the key role that textiles play in crafting narratives, including those that proverbially tear at the fabric of antiquated stereotypes.
Kueh’s new commission is a direct response to the altarpiece that it is installed opposite, which was originally part of the high altar of Barcelona’s Eglesia de Sant Pere de les Puelles (Church of St. Peter of the Nuns). Created by Lluis Borrassà and dated 1411, the altarpiece depicts the Christianisation of St. Peter, from his receiving his calling to his becoming the first Pope. In the colonial narrative, the colonised – such as the people of Borneo – were considered savages, and it was through accepting Catholicism that they would become civilised. Kueh’s split tapestries give form to the artist’s thoughts on the disjunct and balancing act between a desire to belong to the “upper” culture (as Kueh ironically calls it) that is “enlightened” and “civilised” and a desire to preserve and promote his ancestral culture and heritage. Full of satire and criticality, the work proposes a counter-narrative to the legacy of colonially-imposed Catholicism in Borneo.
Kenyalang Circus: Reconciliation, 2024 © Marcos Kueh. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana /Cecília Coca
2024
Industrial weaving, recycled PET, eight yarns
300 × 300 × 50 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Commissioned by Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana
Supported by Ron Mandos and Ammodo
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