Rentyhorn 藍迪峰
Directed by Sasha Huber
4:31 min
2008
*
As a member of the Transatlantic Committee “De-mounting Louis Agassiz”, I made the following intervention. I carried a metal plaque bearing a graphic representation of the slave Renty to the top of an Alpine peak, the Agassizhorn (3946 metres), on the borders of the Swiss cantons of Berne and Valais. In so doing, I took the first step towards renaming the mountain.
This act commemorates the fact that the Swiss-born naturalist and glaciologist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was an influential racist and pioneering thinker of apartheid, and that the Agassizhorn should be renamed the “Rentyhorn” in honour of the Congolese-born slave Renty, and of those who met similar fates. Agassiz ordered Renty to be photographed on a South Carolina plantation, “to prove the inferiority of the black race”.
After carrying out this artistic act, the Transatlantic Committee “De-Mounting Louis Agassiz” and I submitted a request for the plaque to be permanently fixed to the rocks on the summit, and for the mountain to be renamed. The request was sent to the councils whose jurisdiction includes the Agassizhorn: the authorities of the communes of Grindelwald, Guttannen und Fieschertal; the authorities of the cantons of Berne and Valais; as well as the Executive Board and Advisory Committee of the public trust responsible for UNESCO’s “Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn” World Natural Heritage Area. Recipients of the request included: Benedikt Weibel, former CEO of the Swiss Federal Railway; Adolf Ogi, former member of the Swiss government; Heiner Geissler, former German minister and MP; ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger; and no less than former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The responses to this request will reveal whether, in the case of the Agassizhorn, the Ghanaian Kofi Annan and these other eminent persons can afford to ignore the goals of anti-racism and commemoration of slavery that are so dear to UNESCO.
An international petition (www.rentyhorn.ch) addressed to the Swiss government and its two chambers of parliament, and others, has recently gone on-line. It is designed to tell people (in German, English, French and Italian) about the campaign, and to collect signatures in support of re-naming the mountain. People from all over the world have already submitted their names, and more are being added all the time.
I have carried out this work in close collaboration with Hans Fässler, historian, author and founder of the Transatlantic Committee “De-mounting Louis Agassiz”. More about “De-Mounting Louis Agassiz” at: www.louverture.ch.
A special thank you to Hans Fässler.
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Collections.
(Info: The fur is artificial.)
*……瑞士藝術家莎夏哈伯（Sasha Huber）在本展中的新作《藍迪峰》（Rentyhorn），瑞士格里姆瑟爾地區(Grimselgebiet)中有一山名阿加西峰 （Agassizhorn）其命名成因紀念19世紀瑞士地理／古生物學家路易斯·阿加西（Louis Agassiz），阿格西是研究地下冰川學的先趨，他受美國政府委成立「國家科學委員會」（National Academy of Sciences），他除任教哈佛大學之外，並協同創立兩座博物館。莎夏的作品揭露他學術地位崇高的另外一面，晚年適逢美國南北戰爭，阿格西成為擁護種族隔離和強調「科學種族主義」（scientific racism），他發表專書提倡民族血統純正。書中陳明優劣人種歪理，並舉證刊出一張從非洲剛果抓到美國當黑奴藍迪（Renty），指照片十分科學化證明黑色人種低劣。為揭穿偉大學者的真面目，她在2007年阿格西兩百週年誕辰紀念日時，開始一連串為藍迪平反的行動。其一聲明重點是阿加西峰應去名改為藍迪峰。製作一塊紀念說明牌，搭乘直升機飛到山上，把說明牌插在山頂作宣告為更名請命，她在美術館展示的便是經剪輯的影像記錄和大幅照片與向瑞士政府提出陳情的官方文件。要觀者勿忘阿格西不為人知的真面目，謹記二戰集中營的悲劇提點人們勿重蹈覆轍。……
Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Money 真实、美、自由和金钱 