Bildhalle Zurich present the first solo exhibition of Dutch photographer Ilona Langbroek.
Terra Incognita is based on Langbroek’s own family history, which is closely linked to her country’s colonial past and the history of the Dutch East Indies. It is about the uprootedness and split identity of people who were forced to leave their homeland in a hurry – like Ilona Langbroek’s Indonesian grandmother, who was no longer welcome in her own country after Indonesia’s independence due to her marriage to a Dutch soldier.
In her work, the artist places herself in the lives of her grandparents, but also attempts to understand the collective trauma of an entire generation through intensive research and the study of historical images and literature, and to translate it into metaphorical and poetic images. In her staged portraits and still lifes, she works with objects and fabrics that – whether historical or of her own design – connect and visually manifest her grandmother’s old and new homeland.
Ilona Langbroek : Terra Incognita
Opening : Thursday, 29 February 29th: 6pm-9pm
The exhibition runs until end of April.
Bildhalle Zurich
Stauffacherquai 56
8004 Zurich
www.bildhalle.ch
