Transiting in Qatar, touching down in Amsterdam, to the hotel.
Not enough time to dig in to the KITLV colonial archive at Leiden. So, to the Tropenmuseum.
The museum itself is gorgeous but there is very little on display. Surely a tiny fraction of what is archived. No Indonesian instruments. Instead, it seems to be a recently installed series of exhibits which highlight layout, lighting, critical re-evaluations of the Colonial Project. A NEW museum, intended more to give you the sense of being in the place, rather than to educate you about the details of culture and history. Since there is so little to look at, the focus then shifts to examining how those things are represented/presented.
But one may wonder about how the Netherland’s “progressive” policy towards drugs might manifest itself in mundane ways. There is really no other way, other than the influence of drugs, to explain why, for instance, models at the Tropenmuseum have randomly translucent body parts. One might imagine the curators’ meeting: “Right! models of important Dutch and Indonesian historical figures during the colonial era! Yes, but. . . . now, hear me out; they are otherwise realistic models, except, EXCEPT, we give them translucent knees! Yes, that will be symbolic of. . . Dude, pass the joint. . . will be symbolic of. . . . what was I saying?”
The Dutch must have imagined they were raising up their colonies: the iconography on the colonial era archive building portrays an heroic European warrior alongside a noble Javanese village female peasant, both equal under the eyes of a white, European God. How bizarre. The guilt they felt manifested itself in the “Ethical Policy” in which cultural preservation was a major ideal (this fit well with emerging cultural tourism).
I didn’t realize until now how much Indonesian was actually Dutch. Walking to the Contemporary Art museum, which has been moved from its original building behind the Rijkmuseum, way over to the oost harbor. Interesting, but small, temporary exhibit. Contemporary west African photography and a couple of interesting sound installations which you probably could not get away with in the US (for legal reasons): including one with a huge speaker mounted on an enormous, fast spinning iron arm (in America it would, of course, decapitate a child).
Dinner and then a concert at the Bimhuise. Ernst Rennieger (sp ?), contemporary cello improvisation. Thoroughly entertaining, funny (bordering on schlocky at points), virtuosic without making you feel bad about yourself. Beers, walking through the red light district on the way back to the hotel, Saturday night, 1 am. Whoah. I may have been the only sober one on the street. It seems sometimes that humans are motivated mainly by stigma, rather than by morals. Remove the stigma (as in Amsterdam) and people will do anything. Or, the kind of people that come to Amsterdam for that kind of thing, will do anything.
7-27-08
Overdid the walking yesterday and gave myself bad blisters. Staying in and catching up on some writing. Fine flights, dull films, bad food. Home.
