First Day Covers © Lisl Ponger
The Master Narrative and Don Durito
Effects of the colonial project and its relevance today
Join us to watch parts of Lisl’s 8 hour film, divided into ten chapters. Using first day covers to illustrate the Master Narrative, the film addresses issues of colonialism, ethnography and museum collections, their history and relevance today, as well as their impact on the visual arts.
‘The calendar is made up of the past, for those at the top. So that it will stay that way, the powerful fill it up with statues, holidays, museums, homages, parades. That all serves the purpose of keeping the past in place; where things have already happened and not where they will happen,’ says Don Durito, a well-dressed, pipe smoking beetle from the Lacandon Maya jungle, who appointed Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Liberation Army to be his shield bearer.
Statues, museums, famous people and important anniversaries are also found on stamps and first day covers, those small envelopes where the postal services of various nations celebrate them at various times and immortalise them all for the future.” [Tim Sharp]
“‘And so it will stay,’ says Don Durito, ‘until another calendar is written where it has to be written, namely below’.”
About Lisl
Lisl Ponger is a Vienna-based visual artist whose work concerns stereotypes, racism, and the construction of the gaze. Through her photography, film, and installations, Lisl works across a variety of disciplines including visual art, art history, and ethnography.
Daily Friday 26th to Monday 29th August Times TBC
This event will be screened in the Glo Lounge, The Eastgate, 1st Floor, The Eastgate Shopping Centre, 22 Eastgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1PA
