In Dismemberment (2024), European Enlightenment and modern ideals are personified in the figure of a gallery owner, called Europa portrayed by the German actress Susanne Sachsse. Her behavior and speech astutely expose the violences that structure these principles. Chang, in the work, represents an artist setting up the installation in the gallery of Sachsse's character, and their interactions illustrate the normalization of the persistent racialization within European society that upholds colonial hierarchies. 

The exposed abuse and imbalances generated by this interaction culminates in a ritual where the accompanying deities of the artist reveal themselves in the exhibition space, and the Korean gods Daesin Halmeoni, the Great Spirit Grandmother, and Sansin, the Mountain God, perform a healing through Chang on the body of the sick Europe. The ritual is inspired by the traditional Ssitgimgut practice, in which a person is spiritually dismantled by the gods, and what no longer serves them - such as greed, arrogance, abuse, or illness - is removed, leading to rebirth.

Dismemberment works along the invisible lines connecting ancestry and spirituality to Chang's artistic production, but also those connecting individuals immersed in the process of displacement from their original territories to Europe. Texts and images overlap in an anamnesis of the genealogy and settlement of generations of women living under European hegemony, pronouncing a possible end to the cycles of violence that afflict these bodies. Rather than centering on displacement or the search for spirituality, Dismemberment presents a shamanic and political allegory in which Enlightenment ideals - long used to justify colonial domination - are embodied in the figure of the gallerist Europa, representing Europe itself. The work shifts the ethnographic gaze away from those who have been racialized, and instead examines the structures and mentalities of those who racialize. The installation comprises two interconnected spaces: a film room and a room that mirrors the gallery depicted on screen. This space acts both as an art gallery - playing with the ethnographic gaze - and as a ritual room where viewers encounter Korean shamanic art objects such as a large fan, paintings, phallic forms, and paper prayers, creating a ritual environment that blurs fiction and ceremony. Through this meta-structure and the culminating Ssitgimgut ritual - in which sick Europa is dismembered and cleansed by ancestral spirits - the work enacts a symbolic healing of the colonial body and proposes the possibility of its
transformation. 

Bruna Fernanda 
for the 36th Bienal de São Paulo 
Translated from Portuguese by Sergio Maciel



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Installation views Dismemberment Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam. Photography Johannes Schwartz

-------

Credits

Filminstallation, directing, camera, editing, text, voice, costume, set design, artworks, sound and production: Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide)

CAST: 
GALLERIST EUROPA
    Susanne Sachsse
ARTIST/MUDANG        
DAESIN HALMEONI - GREAT SPIRIT GRANDMOTHER
SANSIN - MOUNTAIN GOD
    Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide)

OPERA SINGER
Jinok Kim-Eicken
VOICE OVER, PERCUSSION & SINGER     
Bo-Sung Kim    

GREAT GRANDMOTHER ANCESTORS / EXTRAS
Valentina Wong
Agentur Connection Berlin:
Séverine Bouyssou
Jayara Mithila Dampahalage
Eri Dürr
Phelora Felim
Dain Jeon
Minh Chi La
Sarah Rehaiem
Jongbin Park
Huang Ziwei

CREW

PRODUCTION:
Dagmara Konsek
Daniela Höller
Stephan Urban

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
& EDITING

Coco Magnusson (Berlin)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Gyeol Koo (Korea)
Jane Hwang (Berlin)

CAMERA
Silke Briel
Ethan Folk
Irina Jasnowski
Kyungman Kim

PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER
Lena Marcus
Frank Friedemann

COLOUR GRADING
Gregor Pfüller

STYLING, HAIR & MAKE-UP
Christian Fritzenwanker


ASSISTANT HAIR & MAKE UP EXTRAS
Rebecca Naylor

PRODUCTION
PHALLIC OBJECTS
Thomas Swinkels

COSTUME
Claudia Hill
Kahori Furukawa
Monika Smikalla

PRODUCTION
PHALLIC OBJECTS
Thomas Swinkels

SONG
SISTERS, MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS" (2024)
TEXT
Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide)
COMPOSITION
Jinok Kim-Eicken

SONGS - JINDO SSITGIM GUT
"KIL DAGGEUM"
"SHINNORAE"
SINGER & PERCUSSION
Bo-Sung Kim


RESEARCH ASSISTANCE KOREA
TRANSLATION
Mijoo Park
Soyoon Ryhu

TRANSLATION
Susanne Sachsse
J. Ekenhorst


THIS FILM WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Mondriaan Fund
Fellowship 2022-2023
Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung
Kunstinstituut Melly

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT
LOCATION GALLERY
Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung
Rike Frank and J. Ekenhorst
LOCATION FIRE
Künstlerhof Frohnau
Kaya Behkalam
VITRINES
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
JEWELERY
Townes, Berlin

THANK YOU TO MY TEACHERS
Kim Hye Kyoung
Kim Keum Hwa (1931-2019)
mudang Jenn
Roel Crabbé