Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum | The Gods and The Underdogs 

You are cordially invited to the opening of The Gods and The Underdogs 

Through a nebulous ‘cast’ of characters and alter egos, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum (b.1980, Botswana) explores ever-slipping yet universal notions of selfhood and belonging.

For her first museum solo exhibition in Europe, Sunstrum presents recent drawings and paintings in dialogue with her site-specific installation Exit Permit (2024), combining a new diptych with historical furniture pieces from the collection of Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The staged setting, which recalls a waiting room, refers to the colonial outposts that still exist in Botswana (and other formerly colonised countries) today: bureaucratic, makeshift headquarters where decisions about individual lives were taken. 

Inspired by the tradition of landscape painting, from Dutch skies to the more geometric vistas of South African painter Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, Sunstrum creates a patchwork of remembered landscapes from her childhood, which she spent in a number of countries, including Botswana, Canada, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Malawi and Panama. Sunstrum’s layered works, full of colour, are both tender and defiant, intimate and monumental at the same time. Together, they raise urgent, topical questions about power relations, displacement, identity and autonomy, about gods and underdogs.
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Friday 21 June, 18:00 hrs

• 17:30    Doors open
• 18:00    Welcome by Margriet Schravemaker, Director
•              Introduction by Yasmijn Jarram, Curator
• 18:30    Exhibition open
•              Drinks and music
• 20:00    Doors closed
   

The opening is free for everyone to attend. You can register via the button below
The exhibition is on view from 22 June to 21 October 2024