Playing Possum – My Brothers Might Kill Me
As a partner of Rotterdam Pride, Het Nieuwe Instituut hosts the conference 'Rotterdam (Un) labeled: the Practice of Sexual and Gender Diversity' on 22 September 2016. In presenting the video-installation 'Playing Possum - My Brothers Might Kill Me' the museum contributes to Rotterdam Pride's cultural programme.
23 September 2016 09:00 - 25 September 2016 17:00
Playing possum - My Brothers Might Kill me is originally an interdisciplinary performance piece which premiered at the Helsinki Live Art Performance Festival 2015. The work is based on the defensive behavior of possums, and is inspired on artist Anthony Hüseyin Pharaoh's personal experiences of being the subject of an honor killing threat.
When facing a dangerous situation, a possum will take on the appearance of being dead as a defensive behavior. Since the victim's families are mostly the executioners of honor killings, there are usually no funerals organized. Therefore, Hüseyin has organized his own Islamic traditional funeral in order to complete his physical and emotional act of playing a possum.
The performance Playing Possum - My Brothers Might Kill Me was presented on Thursday 22 September 2016, during the Rotterdam Pride Talkshow in Arminius Rotterdam.
Anthony Hüseyin Pharaoh
Anthony Hüseyin Pharaoh, born in Turkey and lives in the Netherlands, is a jazz singer, composer and a performance artist. His involvement with performance art started through creative activism in 2013, when the tension around the Gezi Park resistance movement in Istanbul reached a critical level. Deeply moved by contemporary social injustice, he wrote a song in the form of an open letter Mr. Prime Minister, which was selected by Turkish national newspaper _Hürriyet _as one of the top 10 protest songs of 2013, and went viral on YouTube.
Hüseyin Pharaoh focusses on provoking, manipulating and eventually confronting the society with its hypocritical behaviors and explores themes like racism, sexism and poverty. His work was on view at LAPSody Festival in Helsinki, Contemporary Art Fair Rotterdam and TENT Rotterdam.
Playing Possum - My Brothers Might Kill Me is his first official interdisciplinary performance piece. The video installation is on view from Friday 23 until Sunday 25 September in the Auditorium of Het Nieuwe Instituut.