Where does culture happen?

Damoon Foroutanian: Dissonant Structures
Under the title ‘Dissonant Structures’ guest curator Damoon Foroutanian (The Scenario, Concrete Blossom) invited three young makers to zoom in on Rotterdam’s club scene and the city of the night. With swirling images from The Scenario and BRF, Steve Sondag and Crystal Doorjé showed how many people, who feel unrepresented by the establishment, find their home on the dance floor and the communities around it.

Charles Mensach addressed the conscious and unconscious mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion that, also within this community, open doors for some while keeping others outside. His experiential installation ‘Apono’, inspired by nighclubs’ door policy, touched on the desire to belong and the experience of being refused based on your origin, skin colour, gender identity or looks.

Amenti collective: The Power of Ritual
The members of Amenti dance and movement collective have their roots in different cultures and subcultures, but they developed their practice from the realisation they didn’t feel fully at home in any of them. They found inspiration in African and South American rituals, recognising the ancient knowledge, suffering and healing power behind them. From this they developed their own ritual experiences and exercises.

At TENT, Amenti’s Gil ‘Godori’ the Grid and Elia Vitadamo staged a ritual space, inviting visitors to connect with their senses and relate on a different level to oneself and one’s surroundings. In this setting, Amenti also held a movement workshop and two dance performances.

Publication
The exhibition also marked the lauch of a joint publication by TENT and the Tate Young Peoples Programmes. Diverse makers from Rotterdam and London were invite to respond, both in text and image, to the question: ‘Where does culture happen?’ Contributors describe the living room, the dance floor, the ritual funeral, the night shop, and the street as places where culture nestles and develops, outside the confines of dominant culture and established institutions.