Margit Lukács & Persijn Broersen | I Wan’na Be Like You
Amsterdam Art Week, 30 May – 2 June, 2024
The duo presents their new film I Wan’na Be Like You in which they explore the Western image of the ‘jungle’, often seen as supposedly unexplored land that served as a symbol of desire for colonial powers. Through a complex process of photogrammetry, 3D-moulding and modelling, motion capture and CGI, Lukács & Broersen created a virtual representation of the conquered wilderness as it is preserved throughout the most important botanical gardens of Europe. It serves as a backdrop for an avatar dancing to an adaptation of I Wan’na Be Like You from Disney’s Jungle Book (1967). The song is reinterpreted by musician David Lukács as a tribute to the New Orleans jazz tradition. As an indictment of the underlying racism of the original and as a proud rendition of the history of their ancestors, Jamal Bijnoe and Orlando Ceder (Black Harmony) have rearranged the melody into the song Na Mi. In the Attachment Space, an earlier work, Bark with a Trace, also offers a new perspective on the image of the wilderness and its meaning in our time.