On 20 November 1961, Michael Rockefeller was eaten by Peppie the cannibal. It happened on a muddy riverbank in the Asmat, a swamp area on the south coast of what is now Papua New Guinea. Shocking enough, that fact. Shocking also is that no one is officially aware of it. No perpetrators were ever identified, no one confessed, but four tribal leaders were executed by the Dutch government. By the way, according to the official history books and the Dutch government, Michael Rockefeller is still missing.
Such a story and what lies behind it, true but too curious to be believable, is typical of Leon Giesen. At least that is what the man behind Mondo Leone himself back in the 1990s. At the time, he was still working at VPRO as a programme maker, but was about to travel to the land of the - former - headhunters with a camera crew. Political unrest in the region and the rumour that not every member of the local population had yet renounced headhunting deterred him at the time. So we still missed a great story, like that of Hitler's Treasure, with which he surprised everyone a few years ago.
So great was Giesen's delight when he discovered that an American journalist appeared to have delved rather deeply into the matter. This Carl Hoffman, acclaimed author for the National Geographic Traveller, among others, latched onto the story, because after all, it involved a scion of a very prominent American caste: the Rockefellers. To reconstruct the events before, during and after the 'disappearance' of Michael Rockefeller, he travelled all over the world. Twice he also stayed in the Asmat, as a guest of the people who knew who had eaten the young anthropologist Rockefeller. It led to an impressive book, which despite its thorough research and extensive notebook, reads like an adventure novel: Savage Harvest.
Leon Giesen read the book, was impressed and invited Carl Hoffman home. He organised a modest fundraiser to pay for Hoffman's plane ticket. That fundraiser consisted of an evening in the studio that Giesen has had with Mondo Leone for a few years now, where he regularly holds sessions in front of an audience, away from the theatres and concert halls that his Mondo Leone had increasingly grown towards.
Soundtrack
Leon Giesen told his own story, before Carl Hoffman spoke. And, lest this intimate evening become a bit Mondo Leone after all, Leon also played a piece of guitar: the soundtrack to the sad story of the miserable end of a somewhat naive millionaire's son, but above all, the sad story of a tribe that has to survive in a world that is totally no longer theirs.
Afterwards, things remained restless in Leon's small studio for a long time. You could talk to a maternity nurse, a property consultant, an artist and a local television personality. Drinks cost a euro. The diehards dove into the pub afterwards. The publisher was able to go home with a nice profit from books sold. It was nice.
Question for you:
One year ago I announced that small was the new big. I based this on the experience of seeing more and more artists in all disciplines experimenting with 'salon'-type events. This intimate Mondo Leone is a good example. And there are indeed more and more small art events, we notice here in the mailbox. Even, or perhaps especially, big festivals are experimenting with them. In the visual arts, but also in the performing arts.
Tell us about such gems. In the comments below.
Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman is now also available in a Dutch translation: Cruel Paradise, translated by Chiel van Soelen and Pieter van der Veen. www.nieuwamsterdam.nl/hoffman
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