Practices of shamanism, the violent eradication of shamanistic cultures by missionaries, healing, ancestry, coloniality, and criminality of contemporary intercountry and transracial adoption are the subjects of Four Months, Four Million Light Years by the Korean/Dutch artist Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide). Shamanic poems, songs and visions invoke the ancestors for support. The project is an homage to those who have been cut off from their mothers, fathers, family, ancestors, land, culture, and spirits. The colonial print Een Schaman ofte Duyvel-Priester [Shaman or Devil’s Priest from the Tungus, 1692] by Dutch man Nicolaes Witsen acts as a pivotal point for a spiritual journey through time. The seventeenth-century print is the first Western depiction of a shaman. It marks the beginning of a long history of racialized and infantilizing descriptions of Asian people by white Europeans. The four months of the title refer to the time it took to complete the paperwork for a Korean child in the lucrative transracial adoption industry that started to flourish after the Korean War, an industry that continues to live off the same colonial imagery from 300 years ago.

The exhibition Four Months, Four Million Light Years contains subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Four Months, Four Million Light Years continues until 18.07. From 04.06, tickets are on sale via ARGOS.