Opening tomorrow 25 June2015 at 19.00 hrs. until 1 July Open every day (see schedule) Address: 1646, Boekhorststraat 125, Den Haag. www.1646.nl
1646 is happy to announce An Awkward Game by Anna Moreno. An Awkward Game is a one week performance on the intersection between table tennis and politics.
An Awkward Game consists of a series of public events and an installation on the political origins of the game. From 25 June until 1 July everyday they will present a different event.
The origins of table tennis are aligned with geopolitics: British aristocrat Ivor Montagu set the rules of the game in the 30s, as he believed it could help spread Communism over the world. He became a Soviet spy, befriending Trotsky, Chaplin and producing Hitchcock’s early films. When Mao established the game as China’s national sport it became a vital cog in his foreign policy, reaching its peak with the reestablishment of US-China relations through the exchange of table tennis players in 1971.
In this project, Anna Moreno parallels diplomacy to dialogism, a term coined by Bakhtin also in the 30s meant to note how readers become engaged in a story by non-linear processes, and that is currently used in social sciences, stressing how dialogue itself enables the existence of ‘the other’.
The one week performance is scheduled as follows:
25th June: SHAKEHANDS (Workshop) 19:00 – 21:00 A workshop on art, sports and diplomacy in collaboration with Bob van den Bos, a Dutch politician and expert in diplomacy and international relations. RSVP required!
26th June: PENHOLD (Special evening) 19:00 – 21:00 An evening with a demonstration on table tennis by the players Ossie Almak and Kento Nomura and a lecture performance by Anna Moreno
For more information and the rest of the program please open here: site!
