E is a video-work, that was written and produced for the project European Everything by Joar Nango as part of Documenta 14, Athens, Greece, 2017.
Central to Joar’s project was a replica of the letter E taken from the discarded sign of an abandoned refrigerator company with the derogatory name Eskimo. During the Documenta this letter functioned as a stage for indigenous artists to show how they continue their traditions today. This video, which served as the narrative for the project, is a poetic and absurd tale about a fridge that ended up on a scrapyard and questions topics as ownership, inequality, progress and freedom. Here is an excerpt from the story:
When we came they put us in white boxes. Each box was labelled with a name we could not relate to. That name was Eskimo, and they knew us by that name. They needed us here, because they needed a piece of our land. It is hot here they said. We need your cold and they took what they wanted. They thought we had enough to share. Enough home. Enough cold. Enough endless white planes. People used us. Put their food into us. And we kept it fresh. They put grocery lists on our shinny white surfaces, pictures of their loved ones and magnets with images of countries once visited. In other words, they made us their own… (Excerpt)
