Panda Diplomacy

2015
Performance for a Swedish living room
in collaboration with curator Chiara Nuzzi Curatorlab, Konstfak, Stockholm

Panda Diplomacy is the outcome of a dialogue initiated by curator Chiara Nuzzi
in the frame of 2015 session of CuratorLab international programme at Konstfack University. The dialogue originated from the reflection about what concepts like migration, otherness, togetherness, soft power, cultural integration and resistance are, how they relate in art and life and how the postcolonial condition might characterize our contemporary society. The artistic process and the work face such issues involving and filtering them through the concept of the family as an active strategy in the artistic practice, contextualizing such an idea in a country very dedicated to the care of children’s life and education as Sweden is.

In the living room of a private house in Stockholm, an impromptu dubbing system is set up for a muted screening of the Japanese animation Panda! Kopanda! The main character, a little girl named Mimiko, represents a loose appropriation
of the Swedish childhood icon Pippi Longstockings. The animated film is the consequence of a historical incident in which an adaptation of Pippi was denied. As a result, the cartoon acts a pre-textual element that offers a reflection on concepts of re-appropriation and adaptation, cultural trasmigration and soft power and the ways in which they are inserted into and among cultures. The private house, open to the public on specific hours for the duration of four days, hosts karaoke-like sessions of dubbing: any two or three participants can dub in real-time the show into Swedish and spectators in the living room can witness the live performance adaptation of Panda! Kopanda! into Panda! Heja, Panda!.

During the first evening of the screening, the performance featured the appearance of Swedish performers and actors Emelie Jonsson, Maria Grudemo El Hayek and David Fukamachi Regnfors. Audience members were invited to enjoy the party, take part, take over a character and become performers themselves.

The project is accompanied by a publication featuring texts by Curandi Katz, Chiara Nuzzi and Veronica Wiman, with further visual interventions by the artists.