Tobias Hübinette & Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide)

Presented as a shamanistic healing journey, Sara Sejin Chang’s (Sara van der Heide) work ”Four Months, Four Million Light Years” pays homage to all who have been cut off from their ancestors. The work addresses the colonial narratives behind transnational and transracial adoption, specifically the historical relations between The Netherlands and Korea.

Transnational adoption has been a common practice in Sweden since the 1960s. Only recently has there been more substantial debate around the grave malpractices in adoption, with scholar and writer Tobias Hübinette as one of the most important critical voices in this discussion. Hübinette’s research allows us to understand transnational adoption in broader field of questions on race, migration, and whiteness in Swedish society.

You are warmly invited to join the conversation between artist Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) and Tobias Hübinette, moderated by Moderna Museet curator Hendrik Folkerts on November 11. Prior to the conversation, you are encouraged to see Chang’s ”Four Months, Four Million Light Years”.

Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide)

Since the late 1990s, Korean-Dutch artist Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) has created a rich body of work that traverses an array of formats and mediums, including film, text, immersive film- and sound installations, performances, and painting. Chang combines spiritual evocations, historical research and the unraveling of colonial narratives creating works that act as historical repair, healing and belonging. Chang questions Eurocentric systems of categorization, racialization and its penetration in all levels of life and contemporary Western society. Her work can be seen as poetic and intimate gestures that centralise a meta-cosmic and inclusive approach to modernity, transforming the meaning of value and time, transcending the biographical and personal.

Sara Sejin Chang’s recent solo exhibitions include “Four Months, Four Million Light Years” ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels, (2021) and The Mother Mountain Institute (CASCO Art Institute, Utrecht, 2021). She has participated in the Busan Biennale, Busan (2022), 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), the 5th Dhaka Art Summit (2020), Sharjah Biennal 13, Beirut; and Contour Biennale, Mechelen (2019).

Tobias Hübinette

Tobias Hübinette is a senior lecturer in pedagogy at Karlstad University. His research focuses on critical race and whiteness studies, visual studies and postcolonial theory, cultural studies and critical theory, adoption research and migration studies, and Korean and Asian studies. His recent publications include “Svensk rasism under efterkrigstiden. Rasfrågor och rasdiskussioner i Sverige 1946-1977” (Swedish racism during the post-war period. Race issues and race discussions in Sweden 1946-1977, 2021) and “Adopterad. En bok om Sveriges sista rasdebatt” (Adopted. A book about Sweden’s last race debate, 2021).