Museum Songspiel: The Netherlands 20XX

Description

‘Museum Songspiel: The Netherlands 20XX’ tells the story of a group of immigrants fleeing deportation. The film follows the immigrants struggle as they seek refuge in the museum, under the assumption that it is the last bastion of free speech and support for the politically oppressed. When the refugees are discovered a cogent, stimulating conversation develops between the director of the museum, the curator, the artist, a TV reporter and the museum attendants.

Chto Delat? draw on the mode of ‘songspiel’ employed in musical theatre developed by playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill in the early twentieth century. A ‘songspiel’ presents political and social concerns through the accessible and often humorous form of song.The elegiac music score composed by Mikhail Krutik is sung by the museum attendants.

The film is an eerie reminder that any system can become monstrous if its masters seal it off from challenge and change and if popular belief in it is blind and fanatical.

Chto Delat? draw on the mode of ‘songspiel’ employed in musical theatre developed by playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill in the early twentieth century, which presents political and social concerns through the accessible and often tragicomic form of song. In this manner Museum Songspiel: The Netherlands 20XX reframes the discrepancy between art and politics. Unity and cohesion are achieved through an elegiac music score composed by Mikhail Krutik.

- Exhibition text 2011 -

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