Freelands Foundation Grant

 

ARTXLAGOS 2019

01.11.19 – 03.11.19
Live performance of Water Work at ARTX LAGOS
In Water Work several thousand litres of clean water seemingly goes to waste. Situated in Lagos, the action immediately speaks to issues around power and access to resources. As is ever present in other performances by Eca Eps, the figure of the woman in the National Service fatigue makes links between gender, labour and women’s work. In this special reenactment of Water Work for ArtX Lagos, the piece is reconsidered in the context of Wura Natasha Ogunji’s curated performance segment ‘small acts’. Ogunji invited three women artists (Eca Eps, Taiwo Aiyedogbon and Ngozi Schommers) to reflect on ethics and the relationship between artists and society in the first ever performance pavillion at Nigeria’s foremost art fair ArtX.

water work performance eca eps at artx lagos
Performing Water Work. Photo by Valentine Umansky
water work performance artx lagos eca eps
Photo by Wura Natasha Ogunji
 

Taiwo Aiyedogbon
Taiwo Aiyedogbon performing Mirror Mirror

ngozi schommers artxNgozi Schommers’ If Not for a Child

ECO FUTURES: STARING AT THE SUN

eca-eps-chibok-calais-1

eca-eps-chibok-calais-1

Curated by Giulia Casalini and Diana Georgiou, EcoFutures: Staring at the Sun is a 3-week festival including a curated group exhibition, international conference, workshops, screenings, performances, residencies and a ‘Deep Trash: Eco Trash’ club night. EcoFutures will bring together over 70 artists, activists and theorists from all over the world to create a platform for discussion and experimentation around urgent environmental and ecological issues such as climate change, extinction, pollution, health and sustainability through a decolonial, feminist and queer lens.

EcoFutures will see the performance of FCTC (From Chibok to Calais) as a response to the exhibition theme. Five women performers are invited to read the text in FCTC in their native tongue, simultaneously in Yoruba, Spanish, French, Swahili and English. This re-presentation of FCTC (previously performed at Fierce Festival 2017 and MKH Biennale 2018) offers a perspective on the role of faith in migration. The performers appear in uniformed choir robes appearing to sing from neverending hymn sheets. With each clamoring for space with her voice, they collectively evoke the oldest story of the origin of difference and apartness in the Tower of Babel. The interjection of water as weapons to their ritual is almost a sacrilegious protest to their prayers.

The performance of FCTC at EcoFutures takes place on 4th April. The exhibition is open from 5th to 14th April at the Mile End Art Pavilion, London

GLOBAL VIDEOS

Global Videos international film exhibition of artists films featuring work from:

Wolfgang in der Wiesche & Nikolaus Gojowczyk-Groon (Germany)
Eca Eps (Nigeria/UK)
Mohammad Bin Lamin (Libya)
Tetsushi Higashino (Japan)
Danny Germansen (Denmark)
Pernille Lonstrup (Denmark)
Ehab Aziz (Egypt)
Beck & Collin Stafford (USA)
Lisi Prada (Spain)
Natercia Chang Macau (SAR)
Selene Citron & Luca Lunardi (Italy)
Iris Poljan & Rahman Hak-Hagir (Croatia & Austria)
Maria Korporal (the Netherlands)
Dik Bol (the Netherlands)
Karin van der Molen (the Netherlands)
Abdoul-Ganiou Dermani (Togo)
Rahman Hak-Hagir (Austria)
Sylvia Toy (USA)
Joyce Overheul (the Netherlands)
Gilivanka Kedzior (France)
Elisabeth Di Sopra (Italy)

Film screenings in the Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong and Pakistan on 10th December 2018

PASSION FOR FREEDOM

Performance of Total Policing at the Passion for Freedom 2018 exhibition opening ceremony at Pall Mall, London

Passion for Freedom female soldiers performance
Photographs/documentation by Gosia Janik

Exhibiting Artists:

Oscar Olivares – Venezuela
Andreea Medar – Romania
Öncü Hrant Gültekin – Turkey/Germany
Mimsy – United Kingdom
Emma Elliott – United Kingdom
Jana Zimova – Czech Republic/Germany
Agata Strzalka – Poland
Ackermann Sandra – United Kingdom
Allen Collin – United States
Amini Farnoush – United Kingdom / Iran
Aylett Mim – United Kingdom
Bardyszewska Dorota – United Kingdom / Poland
Callie Daria – Belarus
Cygan Michal – Poland
Deceuninck An – Belgium
Deyhim Maryam – Iran
Eca Eps – Nigeria / United Kingdom
Elseyofy Wafaa – Egypt
Fenwick Rhonda – United Kingdom / Iran
Fini Francesca – Italy
Fitzpatrick Glenn – United Kingdom
Franclemont Kelise –  United Kingdom
Mosab Abu Toha – Gaza
Hamilton Lou – United Kingdom
Hangama Amiri – Canada / Afganistan
Hennessy Sadie – United Kingdom
Iggulden Harry – United Kingdom
Jasim Luma – United States / Iraq
Jiang Tian – China
Kashak Artur – Russia
Zarabéa Kayani Esfendiar – United Kingdom
Khramova Ekaterina – United Kingdom
KIM Gongsan – United States / North Korea
Korotaev Dmitriy – Russia
Laborie Nicolas – United Kingdom
Liddle Gordon – United Kingdom
Lieske Robin – United States
Liu Dangyong – Italy
Mahmood
Michels Howard – United Kingdom
Moazemi Elham – Iran
Moran Seamus – United Kingdom
Mulhall Tasleem – United Kingdom
Murray Terri “Wanksy” – United Kingdom
Navabi Naghmeh – United Kingdom / Iran
Okon Roland – Poland
Ovcharov Nicholas – Ukarine
Paddock James – United Kingdom
Parvaneh Maggie – United States
Poraj Gosia – United Kingdon/Poland
Pringle Hamish – United Kingdom
Revelle Chris – United States
Roșca Diana – Romania
Seber Gamze – United Kingdom / Turkey
Trillo Ada – United States / Mexico
Niek Verschoor – Netherlands
Von Bargen Alec – Italy
Vysokova Tatyana – Russia
Walker Sarah – United Kingdom
Welman Yvonne – Netherlands
Wolter Ian – United Kingdom

MKH BIENNALE: CLIMATES OF CHANGE

Led by artist-curator Pippa Koszerek, the 2018 MKH Biennale in Halberstadt is themed around the Klimawechsel [changing climate]bringing together artists who look at changing systems – social, financial and architectural – and artists whose work seeks to directly create and disrupt change through invention with alternative mechanisms. For its third edition, the Monat Kunst Halberstadt Biennale will look through the experiments of artists at the changing current social, political, cultural, environmental and historical climate to examine how artists comprehend, influence and make change in the world.

Eca Eps’ intervention at the MKH Biennale will feature live performance, video and installation comprising four works:

Water Work: A durational performance film staged at the National Museum Lagos, Nigeria which utilised 50,000 litres of water reflecting on access to water as a marker for survival. In the vein of other performances, the national youth service uniform is adopted to simultaneously look at the role of the artist as citizen and art as a tool for civic participation.

Unbuilding: This live installation uses frozen saltwater with traces of red earth evoking passage through the Sahara and the Mediterranean to create a collapsing wall recognising the shifting tendency towards closed societies sparked by the influx of migration and the subsequent responses.

Pure Water: Drinking water packaged as emergency water supply on rescue crafts (also sold commercially in Nigeria as ‘pure water’ for consumption on the go) serves a dual function as it becomes weaponised as water bombs when in motion during the interconnected performance of ‘From Chibok to Calais’ in the exhibition.

From Chibok to Calais: This performance previously staged at ORT Gallery combines a vocal map reading exercise intercut by spontaneous audience participation all of which is consumed by the presence of an agitated watch dog.  Using space, sound, speech and text, this performance creates an experience that provides a glimpse into the uncertainty, chaos and distress brought on by displacement.

Exhibiting artists at MKH Biennale include Alexander Kluge, Aram Bartholl, Aerocene Foundation (Museo Aero Solar), Georgia Brown, Jasmina Cibic, Rebecca Chesney, Don’t Follow The Wind, Transformation Design, Sarah Lehn, Alistair Mcclymont, Sogol Mabadi, Doireann Ni Ghrioghair, and Sven Wiesner.

Klimawechsel / Climates of Change will open on 31st August and run until 29th September 2018.
See exhibition venues.

climates of change exhibition

climates of change exhibition

ART CUBE ARTISTS STUDIO RESIDENCY

Why We Serve is a research process examining women’s service to the state in conflict contexts, particularly in relation to religiously motivated wars. Often framed as casualties in war, women have also defied assumed narratives and in some instances, have taken on combative roles with Kurdish women fighters immediately coming to mind – but beyond counter-insurgencies such as in the Rojava revolution, women also assume combat as a civic duty.

The process is conducted through performativity (walking in uniform, mapping, drawing, audio/discussion) Having explored the notion of labour in my practice, I have often staged performances in my National Youth Service Corps uniform alluding to questions around civil participation in everyday life. Through my time in Israel, my uniform will be a marker for the work as it gradually accumulates the shared stories and maps of walks.

By cross-referencing the political contexts of Nigeria and Israel, the militarised aesthetics evident on the streets in both states establishes a degree of commonality, but the stark contrast in relation to gender and conflict provides a more challenging exchange. In the former, women have been framed as casualties of the Boko Haram insurgency with few serving in the Nigerian army, while the reverse is true in Israel, with many staying on beyond conscription. The territorial struggle that defines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also echoed in the drive for militants to seize the north of Nigeria.

Why We Serve is undertaken as part of Art Cube Artists’ Studios international annual residency programme funded by the Jerusalem Foundation.

On 5th July 2018, I will be taking part in a live event marathon at Art Cube Artists’ Studios, creating a performance based on my research project Why We Serve. I will also be in conversation with artistic director Maayan Sheleff discussing women’s service in a talk titled ‘Agents or Servants: On the Female Civic Body’

Photo by Tal Kronkop

 

 

FROM CHIBOK TO CALAIS AT ORT GALLERY

Eca Eps’ first UK solo exhibition is funded by Arts Council England, in collaboration with Fierce performance arts festival & SHOUT festival. From Chibok to Calais is at ORT gallery until 11th November.

Installation view photographs by Marcin Sz
Performance stills by Sammim Abbas
Exhibition film by Jonnie Dean

Above, installation view at Ort gallery

Above, performance of from Chibok to Calais at Fierce Festival


In the vein of much contemporary response to geopolitical change, Eca Eps (Nigeria) explores the chaos presented by conflict, migration and the polarised responses that ensue. But From Chibok to Calais unexpectedly draws on materials associated with environmental deprivation to shift the emphasis onto the reality of displacement and survival.

In the main exhibition, water is presented in changing states; frozen saltwater, emergency water sachets and a performance film of running water accompanied by the sound of a water pumping machine.

Entrance into the gallery show requires the audience to walk on a path leading to a mound of soil which is stopped abruptly by a wall of text. Closer inspection reveals them to be an instruction of the route suggested in the show’s title, but with further instructions on a return journey alluding to a failed trip or deportation.

A film shows performances of Walk this Earth (2015-2017) in which the artist marches on Nigerian soil, revealing a request for continued participation of this act of protest, as audiences leave their own mark on the soil.

A large wall canvas maps a locality in Chibok with soil collected from various Anglicised African countries, with each said to impose the strictest restrictions on women and gay rights administered under British colonial law.

The prevalence of water follows on in the live performance in which the sachets become weaponised as water bombs thrown at the performer, who persistently reads out the instructions of the route. The exercise becomes arresting when a barking police dog accosts the reader in what becomes a competing battle of will over terror. The placement of the performance in an unlit laundry room in the Moseley Victorian swimming baths made for an experience of chaos and disorientation.

Understatedly, From Chibok to Calais foreruns Nigeria’s latest big crisis in addition to its fight against terrorism in a country where a quarter of a million people were killed by drought in 2017 alone. It comes as no surprise that the number of Nigerians crossing the Mediterranean in 2017 frequently surpassed all other nationalities, and of those, a reported 50,000 were women and girls.

Having examined gender and conflict in an earlier work Boko: An Archive of Terror (2014) Eca Eps’ From Chibok To Calais is a reminder of the continued desperation of being female in Nigeria.

Photos copyright Eca Eps, Marcin Sz  Samim Abbas

 

LAGOS BIENNIAL: LIVING ON THE EDGE

Artist-curator Folakunle Oshun and an international curatorial team including Ayo Akinwande, Amira Paree, Sola Akintunde, Kelvin Hazel, Kwasi Ohene-Aye, Aminat Lawal Agoro and Michael Enejiso; conceived the inaugural Lagos Biennial around survival. Themed ‘Living On the Edge’, the exhibition brought together Nigerian and international artists to re-think and re-imagine Lagos and produce site-specific and contextual work that interrogates their experiences in and around crisis situations.

Participating artists include Jelili Atiku, Rahima Gambo, Lena Athanasopoulou, Sam Hopkins and David Lale, Saba Zavarei, David Palacios, Arrigo Reuss, Lamis Haggag, Dunja Herzog, Jess Atieno, Abdulrazaq Awofeso, Rita GT, Niyi Olagunju, Phoebe Boswell, Kainebi Osahenye, Adeola Olagunju, Ranjeeta Kumari, Yara Mekawei, Eca Eps, Obuh Christopher Nelson, Amina Zoubir, Olivia Jasinski, Tito Aderemi-Ibitola, Kathleen Hearn, Jerry Buhari, Youngjoo Yoo, Poku Chereme, Maie Okafor, Amol Pati, Tori Wrånes, Taiye Idahor, Januario Jano, Ro Caminal, Ala Kheir, Sol Prado, Wura Natasha-Ogunji, Sébastien Mazauri, Fati Abubakar, Delio Jasse, Abraham Oghobase, Kris Russo, Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, Silas Mensah, Mawuenya Amudzi and Ayo Akinwande.

The biennial is organised by the Akete Art Foundation in partnership with Legacy 1995

Eca Eps: Government Reserved Area (GRA) installation at the 2017 Lagos Biennial examined the increasing privatisation of public space and the developing dialogue on mapping and toponymy as part of a considered drive to redefine national identity post-independence.

SOLO EXHIBITION: FROM CHIBOK TO CALAIS


Exhibition Information:

Taking momentum from one of the key issues shaping public debate, artist Eca Eps explores the chaos presented by conflict and migration and civic nationalism. Utilising elements of speech, sound and play in a participatory performance, the artist draws on the materiality of water as a leveller that cuts across territorial boundaries, with emphasis on its dualistic capacity to constitute both a barrier and a lifeline, underscored by the spatial provenance of a derelict gala pool.

Elements of soil and water are used to navigate the spacial and temporal process of migration by employing a tactile approach to displacement and survival. Bringing together seemingly disparate geopolitical concerns, the installation and performance interweaves these matters as universal. The materials present in the show are used to question the varying degrees of public participation and complicity as bystanders, opponent or activist.

Eca Eps’ first UK solo exhibition is curated by Josephine Reichert, funded by Arts Council England, in collaboration with Fierce performance arts festival & SHOUT festival

Opening/PV/Live Event: 07.09.17 6pm-8pm
Performance: 21.10.17 4pm – 4.15pm – Moseley Road Baths
Artivism workshop: 11.11.17 1pm-2.30pm – Ort Gallery
Exhibition: 08.09.17 – 11.11.17 (Open Tuesdays to Saturdays 12noon – 5pm)
Address: Ort Gallery 500-504 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham B12 9AH

Exhibition documentation

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LISSON GALLERY & ARTREVIEW LIVE: IN DEFENCE OF THE DEMOS

Lisson Gallery, in association with ArtReview Live, hosted an entire evening of talks, films and performances staged on Ai Weiwei’s work, Fondation, a platform made from the ruins of ancient columns. In the open spirit of the Roman forum or Greek agora, speakers discussed the issues of borders, identity and people’s role in politics.

“Intended as a contemporary equivalent to the Greek agora, a public place of assembly and discussion, visitors are invited to sit upon the bases of the pillars and reflect on the future. The historical aesthetic of the work is also a metaphor for Ai Weiwei’s use of social media as a platform to engage international audiences on salient issues irrespective of time and place. The installation will be used as an actual site for dialogue and debate as part of a performative discussion with leading artists, curators and activists, which will be streamed live on 8 December.”

Artist Jeremy Hutchinson was invited to participate in the live event. For his performance, he called upon two participants,  a Brexiter and a Remainer, requesting from them a collaborative effort and struggle to imprint their thoughts on the gallery wall.

lissongallery.com/news/livestream-in-defence-of-the-demos

Speakers in order of appearance:

Sue Clayton, film director, I am Human – Precarious Journeys
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK
Adam Broomberg, artist, Hands off Our Revolution
Jeremy Hutchison, artist
Fatos Ustek, curator
Nigel Rolfe, artist
Julia Farrington, Index on Censorship
Michaela Crimmin, Culture+Conflict
Legacy Russell, writer and curator
Sam Jacob, architect
Keep it Complex, activist group
Oliver Chanarin, artist
Richard Wentworth, artist

PODIUM DEFLUX: PERFORMANCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Hannah van de Stadt
Monday 5th December 2016

“KUNST IS EEN SLAGVELD WAAROP WE KUNNEN STRIJDEN VOOR INDIVIDUELE VRIJHEID”

Op 10 december, tijdens de Internationale Dag van de Rechten van de Mens, presenteert de Zaanse stichting White Cube ‘Global Videos’. Op 10 locaties verspreid over de hele wereld wordt op hetzelfde tijdstip videokunst van 40 internationale kunstenaars vertoond met als thema ‘mensenrechten’. 

In Nederland is het Zaanse Podium de Flux de thuisbasis van Global Videos.
De openingsperformance van Global Videos wordt gehouden door Eca Eps. In Nigeria is het ten strengste verboden en daardoor ook praktisch onmogelijk om te demonstreren voor LHBT-rechten (=gelijke homo-rechten). Om toch voor hun rechten op te kunnen komen, heeft de Nigeriaanse kunstenares aarde meegenomen uit Nigeria. Op deze aarde zal ze in haar performance `Marching on Nigerian Soil` alsnog demonstreren voor gelijke rechten.

Mensen die zich in Nigeria bezighouden met protesten worden beschouwd als probleemmakers, die hard worden bestraft door de wetmakers en de politie. Door deze harde straffen waren er bijvoorbeeld geen protesten toen in 2014 een wet werd ingevoerd die homoseksualiteit bestraft met 14 jaar gevangenis. Protesteren wordt erg moeilijk gemaakt voor de gewone mens. Jelili Atiku, een vriend van Eca Eps, was bijvoorbeeld op een onmenselijke manier gearresteerd voor het protesteren tegen terrorisme. Buitenlands druk lijkt wel te werken met het stimuleren van verandering. Eca Eps hoopt de lokale politiek wakker te schudden door haar ideeën kenbaar te maken aan een internationaal publiek.

‘Kunst is een slagveld waarop we kunnen strijden voor individuele vrijheid’, laat Eca weten.
‘De westerse kunst heeft zich vooral gefocust op zijn eigen talenten. Ik denk dat een platform als Global Videos erg belangrijk is om kunstenaars van andere delen in de wereld een podium te geven, zodat we onze kunst kunnen delen met elkaar en een groter publiek. Op deze manier kunnen we samen pleiten voor vrijheid.’

Op dit moment heeft de kunstenares nog geen grote doelen gesteld voor haarzelf. In plaats van de wet te willen veranderen, legt ze liever de nadruk op het proces. ‘Vrijheid gaat niet altijd over de mogelijkheid om te kiezen tussen verschillende opties. Zoals filosoof Hannah Arendt zegt: ‘Vrijheid is de bekwaamheid om iets nieuws te starten en het vermogen om iets onverwachts te doen’.’

In 2017 gaat Eca met dit project op tournee. Ook zal dit project vertoond worden in de Engelse stad Birmingham. Naast dit project werkt ze ook aan andere projecten in samenwerking met de Library, een organisatie die zich inzet voor vrijheid van meningsuiting.

Kijk op www.podiumdeflux.nl voor meer informatie.
Interview door Hannah van de Stadt

Transcript

– You’re coming to The Netherlands to perform for the International Day of Human rights. What do Human Rights mean to you?

Human rights has long been on the global agenda politically, economically and as a social policy but a new urgency has come to surround it due to the nature of our fast changing political sphere, climate change and major events in 2016 such as Brexit and the US elections. However, the way I look at it is not from the insular perspective that often dominates the culture industry, which is the insistence that the only threats to minority rights comes from a far-right nationalist front. While that may ring true, I also see the appointment of Saudi Arabia into the UN Human Rights Council as a reminder that some of the greatest threats to women’s rights and freedoms have become so adept that even liberals struggle to identify them, and instead hone in on easier targets. It is my observation that activism in the west is gradually shifting away from the enlightenment values of universal human rights into a position based on arbitrary merits such as identity, which is a concern. I believe that art provides a battleground on which we can contest freedoms individually.

– What does it mean to you to make a part of Global Videos?

Since the art canon of the West has largely focused on its home-grown talents, I think that a platform such as Global Videos is very crucial in enabling artists from other parts of the world to reach out to each other and the wider public to celebrate and advocate for universal concerns of equality, liberty and freedom of conscience and free expression.

– You’re bringing soil from Nigeria to the Netherlands, because they won’t allow you to protest in that country. Have you experienced any difficulties with protesting the past?

Nigeria is a place of contradictions. On one hand, it is a place in which absolutely anything is possible, due to the sheer availability of cheap manual labour and excessive levels of corruption but at the same time, I am often in despair at the misfortune of holding a green passport, as many Nigerians would lament from time to time. Pursuits such as advocating for reproductive rights, gay rights, abolition of child marriage and Sharia law are considered to be the domain of troublemakers and society responds to them as such, which harsh punishments from the police and lawmakers. This explains why there were no protests on the ground following the passing of the law that criminalises homosexuality with 14 years in prison in 2014. Protests took place in Uganda and Kenya over similar laws, but so harsh is the Nigerian climate, that anyone who cared could only shout from their abodes in London and New York. My friend Jelili Atiku was unlawfully arrested and detained in prison without trial for his performance against terrorism, despite his standing as a prominent figure. The risks to ordinary people who engage in similar protests are immeasurable. In the past intervention from the outside world has made a difference and so, engaging with an international audience in relation to our local politics also has value.

– What is the exact message that you’re trying to give with this project? With your art, you’re trying to make a voice for the people that can’t express themselves. What do you hope to achieve with your protest?

At this point, I have not set myself any grand aims, such as a particular call to change the law, rather an emphasis on process. Freedom is not always only about being able to choose from a given set of options. Freedom can also be courage or action. As Hannah Arendt put it, freedom is the capacity to start something new and the ability to do something unexpected.

I’m not sure if I’m trying to give a voice to others because that would presume I know what they want, but I certainly want to engage with the politics of today and perhaps people, at home or abroad may find aspects that they can resonate with or even stand in opposition to. I think the value of the work lies in that moment where audiences come to witness it and respond to it, irrespective of the type of response it provokes.

– Is “Marching on Nigerian Soil” the only project you’re working on right now?

This project will be available for touring through 2017 and it is due to show in Birmingham in the UK. I am also working on other projects with my conceptual library project where we look at processes of public engagement through art and literature as responses to censorship and blasphemy laws.

EMBASSY OF BRAZIL: IBERO-AMERICAN UTOPIAS

The Ibero-American Utopias exhibition is at the Embassy of Brazil, London 14 – 16 Cockspur Street, SW1Y 5BL from 16th November to 8th December 2017. Private view: 15th November 6.30pm

“For some time, we have wanted to put on a major event to commemorate the relaunch of our activities, as well as to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the countries that we represent. Fortuitously, our plans thereby coincided with the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’, so we thought we would explore how More’s fictional account of an ideal world could be said to speak to the Ibero-American situation – therefore, this year’s theme will be ‘Ibero-American Utopias’. This also speaks to our interest in fostering cultural interchange, and in stimulating new interactions between the Ibero-American and British worlds. In this case, we are linking a key text of the UK’s Renaissance intellectual history to current trends in contemporary art, and revisiting and investing with new significance the story of the relationship between these two spheres.

So, how about the link?  If you stop to think about how Spanish and Portuguese explorers first fantasized about the Americas as a kind of ‘new Eden’; how Latin American thinkers have sought to forge their own unblemished ‘native’ consciousness; about Don Quixote and his impossible dream; or Pablo Neruda’s hymns to the ideal of Pan-American unity; or Mário de Andrade’s irreverent utopian novel Macunaíma, his rhapsodic amalgamation of brazilianness, – you will see that the intellectual and art histories of Ibero-American countries are indeed a rich tapestry of utopian dreams and contestations. And it isn’t just Ibero-American artists who have been inspired by the myth of El Dorado. You need look no further than Voltaire’s Candide for an example of how Latin America, Spain and Portugal have long served as beacons of utopianism to writers and artists from beyond their borders.”

– Hayle Gadelha, Cultural Attaché, Embassy of Brazil

 

AUTOGRAPH ABP: SHIFTING AND SACRED SITES

A presentation and performative lecture at Scarred, Shifting & Sacred Sites: Art, Advocacy & Performance at Autograph ABP, London

“Investigating the ways performative practices challenge prejudice, fear and violence towards the body in society.”

“This event takes Aida Silvestri’s Unsterile Clinic, an exhibition to raise awareness of the widespread practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), as a cue to reflect on the gendered, cultural body as a site of struggle, recuperation, and possible transformations. Performers’ responses will address the body as a living map of physical and emotional scars, a site for confronting institutional boundaries as well as the ground for individual and collective resistance.”

Book tickets

Something Human presents: Oreet Ashery, Raju Rage, Helena Walsh & Eca Eps

Scarred, Shifting & Sacred Sites: Art, Advocacy & Performance at Autograph APB, London