



Ming Wong
Learn Swedish With Susan Wongtag / Lär dig svenska med Susan Wongtag, 2023
Single channel HD video, colour with stereo audio
4'50"
Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs
Copyright The Artist
Further images
During the artist's tenure as 'professor of fine art specialising in performance in the expanded field' at the Royal Art Institute, Ming Wong adopted a new persona inspired by Susan...
During the artist's tenure as "professor of fine art specialising in performance in the expanded field" at the Royal Art Institute, Ming Wong adopted a new persona inspired by Susan Sontag, the American writer, cultural theorist and filmmaker, who lived for a period in Stockholm in 1969 and wrote a critique of Swedish society entitled "A Letter from Sweden". Originally commissioned as a public art work in an underground station in Stockholm, the video features Susan Wongtag repeating selected parts of the infamous letter, translated into Swedish.
'Susan Wongtag is alter ego I created last year, when I was a professor of performance in the expanded field at the Royal Institute of Art. I made a public art work that was inspired by Susan Sontag’s essay “A Letter to Sweden” in which she criticises Swedish society (quite humorously) where she spent several months to make a film in the late 60s. The essay was never translated into Swedish, so I did it and performed some memorable lines from it, as a way of learning Swedish, and communicating with the Swedish public. I also performed live as Susan Wongtag, when making my farewell speech to the school when I was leaving.' [Ming Wong]
'Susan Wongtag is alter ego I created last year, when I was a professor of performance in the expanded field at the Royal Institute of Art. I made a public art work that was inspired by Susan Sontag’s essay “A Letter to Sweden” in which she criticises Swedish society (quite humorously) where she spent several months to make a film in the late 60s. The essay was never translated into Swedish, so I did it and performed some memorable lines from it, as a way of learning Swedish, and communicating with the Swedish public. I also performed live as Susan Wongtag, when making my farewell speech to the school when I was leaving.' [Ming Wong]
Exhibitions
2025 "CAMP, Ota Fine Arts, TokyoJoin our mailing list
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