Echo - Morphed Mythologies

2024 | Performative exhibition.

Het Tijdelijk
The Actual Main Institute

Het Tijdelijk Museum of Modern Art and it’s exhibition Echo- Morphed Mythologies are both a part the overarching project «Uncontrollability or Paranoid Production and Perception or You’re so Paranoid You Probably Think This Project Is About You». Through a methodology based on elements from performance, pataphysics and storytelling, I use fictional narratives to create an imaginary context to operate within. For this project, I created Het Tijdelijk Museum and wrote 50 applications for my own Open Call. The art-works, all executed by me while acting out different characters, can be seen in the final exhibition Echo - Morphed Myhtologies. As Het Tijdelijk Museum of Modern Art is a museum imagined for the sake of the need of a context for the exhibition, it does not have a physical body. However, through the use of a building costume, the small, white cube inside of Huidenclub will dress up and act as Het Tijdelijk for the duration of the exhibition.

About the exhibition

Het Tijdelijk Museum proudly presents the exhibition Echo - Morphed Mythologies as a part of its 50 year jubilee.The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday, 6th of September 2024. The exhibition consists of works by the Netherlands based Nolan Meier (AT), Marion Nelé (FR) and Ole Riemann (DK) whom have all interpreted the myth of Echo and Narcissus - the mountain nymph who fell in love with a warrior who could only love himself.

“Metamorphoses”, and the myth of Echo and Narcissus can be understood as a tale about reflections and replications, the relationship between the observer and the observed, and of transformation from one form to another. It speaks of lust and rejection, self-absorption and blind devotion. It can also be seen as a story about mechanisms of distance and isolation, and of the individual versus the collective - the monologue versus the dialogue. What became of Narcissus, who got lost in the forest, and who refused to indulge in anyone but himself? Or of Echo, who devoted her last days echoing the admiration of a man lost in his own self image? Today we see Echo in algorithms and the mimetic tendencies of the internet and new technologies, while Narcissus has become the name-giver of a personality trait used to characterise a whole generation as well of those in charge.

Words by
Elma Norine, Head curator
(a character by Maren Oline Bang)

To read more about Het Tijdelijk Museum, check out www.het-tijdelijk.nl and www.theactualmaininstitute.com.