Ghana ThinkTank
Founded 2006 by Christopher Robbins (USA), John Ewing (USA) and Matey Odonkor (Ghana) - joined in 2009 by Maria del Carmen Montoya (USA).
Ghana ThinkTank is a collective of American artists, who operate internationally and cooperate with think tanks in the “developing” world. Born of dissatisfaction with the effectiveness and power dynamics of International development programs they experienced while living and working in Africa, Latin America, the South Pacific, and the Balkans, this group of artists decided to radically turn things around. They established the ‘Ghana ThinkTank’, an initiative that attempts to “develop the first world” with the help of think tanks they have set up in various countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
'Leiden's problem'
Preceding the exhibition, Ghana ThinkTank visited various districts of Leiden to collect problems. People were asked about ‘Leiden’s problem’ and the (adverse) effects of globalisation. At the same time that Ghana ThinkTank was in Leiden, Muslim fundamentalists were killing Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris. Unsurprisingly many of the opinions voiced were related to the gulf between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Think tanks
Ghana ThinkTank put the problems expressed in Leiden to its think tanks, including two new think tanks established especially for Global Imaginations in Morocco and Indonesia, countries with which the Netherlands has special links. The solutions proposed by the think tanks will be incorporated into a spectacular installation that builds bridges between seemingly incompatible quantities.
What initially appears to be a playful reversal of traditional power dynamics and role patterns soon becomes a question of whether personal surroundings can be separated from the world at large. Where does personal responsibility for the collective whole begin, and where does it end?
Monument to the Dutch
Monument to the Dutch is a spatial installation, open to the public. The symbolic reference to the Achterhuis of Anne Frank plays a central role in the installation. The bookcase at the entrance is filled with literature that refers to the history of tolerance and intolerance. Around the space, symbolic references to the connections between Islam and Dutch history are shown, but also references to the Islamic religious tradition. The artwork calls for Dutch people to learn from the past. It questions the symbols that are used to represent tolerance and intolerance. In response to the growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Europe, the artists call for the Dutch to consider how tolerant they actually are, and how they view their future. Besides the Monument to the Dutch, a second artwork was exhibited, entitled Ghana ThinkTank Leiden, in which the research in Leiden's neighbourhoods and the approach taken by the artists was revealed.
more about the Ghana ThinkTank