Köken Ergun & Fetra Danu
© Köken Ergun & Fetra Danu
Köken Ergun is an artist who reflects on the geopolitical machinations of global trade and transport infrastructure, particularly the Belt and Road Initiative and its affiliated Maritime Silk Roads, considered as China’s contemporary reimagining of the historical Silk Road. Focusing on the geopolitical relationships involved in the exploitation of natural resources, he works collaboratively with researchers, artisans and makers in different places to create artworks each time in a culturally-specific visual language.
China, Beijing, I Love You! is an experimental documentary Ergun made collaboratively with Indonesian animation artist Fetra Danu. It charts China’s Maritime Silk Road that forms a network of trade infrastructures passing from Sulawesi Island in Indonesia — where Nickel is extracted — through the Malacca Strait, traversing ports in the Indian Ocean including in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, on to Tanzania — where Cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo are expedited — before reaching Europe via the Suez Canal. “Invest in Indonesia! Make sure that you don’t miss it!” is the mantra touted by businessmen as a means to national prosperity. Yet in stark contrast, labourers in processing plants protest at working conditions, demanding more rights, protections and health safeguards. Nickel Dust and Cobalt Dust are the protagonists of the film, exiled from their homes in Sulawesi Island and the DRC, demanding to be returned to the earth rather than their exploitation for their use in the globalised production of such things as Electronic Vehicle batteries and mobile phones.
In China, Beijing, I Love You!, giving a literal voice to minerals offers an inventive means for reflecting on the social, environmental and geopolitical impact of such globalised practices of extraction.
China, Beijing, I Love You!, 2023
Single-channel video, 34:58 min.
Courtesy the artists