Over the past few years Fiona Tan (Pekan Baru, Indonesia, 1966) has received a great deal of recognition for her film and video installations. In 2001 her work was shown at the Yokohama Triennial and in 2002 work of hers was selected for the Documenta in Kassel. Currently she is showing recent works in the Dutch Pavillon at the Venice Biennial.
Fiona Tan has produced both documentary films and autonomous film/video works. Her work is characterized by an intent manner of recording people in their surroundings. Precise editing gives these sequences a detailed focus. With a number of works, Tan has used existing visual material from film archives and has a special interest for older anthropological documentaries. These fragments have been culturally relocated, as it were, and a new confrontation with the anonymous portrait subjects is the result. With much of this material, one experiences a certain tension between the idea of observation and that of being observed.
De Pont has four video works by Fiona Tan, of which three are shown this summer: Saint Sebastian (2001), Roll I & II (1997 ) and Downside Up (2002).