Black A(n)thena: Our Tools Were Rudimentary Yet We Pressed On
1. Tuned City | 2018
a collaboration with Gilles Aubry
Messene | Greece
a collaboration with Gilles Aubry
Messene | Greece
The artists re-examines the entangled histories of German colonialism in West Africa, botanic and mineral sciences, and ancient Greek civilisation, in order to create a new performance for the wrestling area (Palaestra) on the archaeological site of ancient Messene. Departing from the amphitheaters built by German settlers in Cameroon, Senegal and Gabon at the end of the 19th century for recreational purposes, they follow the multiple traces of writer and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso, whose famous novel ‘The Man With No Shadow’ from 1814 was performed in such theaters, and whose name was re-appropriated locally as an imaginary goddess, named Camissonae. These historical and imaginary voices come to populate Bikoro & Aubry's performative sound field, together with those of healing plants, minerals, African parrots mimicking German voices and conceptual radio antennas. In their performance 'Black Anthenna' they invite the audience to become actively part of a process of decolonial wrestling and sonic healing, paying also a tribute to Martin Bernal’s theses on the Afro-Asiatic roots of classical civilisation expressed in his book ‘Black Athena’ (1987).
Black Anthenna from earLangue on Vimeo.
2. Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt Berlin | 2018
The performance explores practices of listening and radio as means to decolonize and untrain the ear from hegemonic listening knowledge. Drawing on material from piracy radios, Black A(n)thena follows the entangled histories of German settlements and anti-colonial struggles in Gabon and elsewhere. The artists follow the multiple traces of writer and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso, who reappears on a banana plantation in Gabon as the goddess “Camissonae”, while nature transmits testimonies and warnings to the plantation laborers. Black A(n)thena draws on the role of the scientific perpetrator rather than the native as subject and counter-reacts to the technologies of sound recordings and transmissions used in early 20th century.
Black A(n)thena (Kosmos) explores the link between radio reception and piracy as a form of untraining the ear and decanonising forms of knowledge. The project understands signals of frequency and message through coding anti-colonial resistance knowledge often embraced in anti-colonial African & Diaspora movements in the context of Tanzania (1914), Gabon (1960) and Mozambique (1979). Many of these messages, notably produced in Berlin by the international Black Diaspora communities (1930’s), shared visionary strategies and warnings on colonial struggles and racism. Pirated from sampled radio frequencies, the artists explore sound transmissions of piracy through biomythography and sonic debris of colonial German settlements (1914) in Gabon through the interceptions of nature as a place of resistance through an economy and ecology of darkness; what moves in secrecy and returns. In this work nature transmits testimonies and warnings as device for the local struggle of a children’s former labor banana plantation in Mimbeng against a German female Goddess ‘Camissonae’ whose mirage manifestation is inspired by early 19th century German literature. The sonic project draws on the role of the scientific perpetrator rather than the native as subject and counter-reacts to the technologies of sound recordings and transmissions used in early 20th century. The significance of sound transmission is dependent on a time-travel through frequencies of nature, secrets and darkness before being audible to urban structures.
Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro's and Gilles Aubry's transdisciplinary works engage with both decolonial and eco-critical/ecological perspectives to re-imagine African feminist voices and resistance legacies through a necessary process of entanglements between nature and culture, the environment, technologies and epistemic violence.
The performance explores practices of listening and radio as means to decolonize and untrain the ear from hegemonic listening knowledge. Drawing on material from piracy radios, Black A(n)thena follows the entangled histories of German settlements and anti-colonial struggles in Gabon and elsewhere. The artists follow the multiple traces of writer and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso, who reappears on a banana plantation in Gabon as the goddess “Camissonae”, while nature transmits testimonies and warnings to the plantation laborers. Black A(n)thena draws on the role of the scientific perpetrator rather than the native as subject and counter-reacts to the technologies of sound recordings and transmissions used in early 20th century.
Black A(n)thena (Kosmos) explores the link between radio reception and piracy as a form of untraining the ear and decanonising forms of knowledge. The project understands signals of frequency and message through coding anti-colonial resistance knowledge often embraced in anti-colonial African & Diaspora movements in the context of Tanzania (1914), Gabon (1960) and Mozambique (1979). Many of these messages, notably produced in Berlin by the international Black Diaspora communities (1930’s), shared visionary strategies and warnings on colonial struggles and racism. Pirated from sampled radio frequencies, the artists explore sound transmissions of piracy through biomythography and sonic debris of colonial German settlements (1914) in Gabon through the interceptions of nature as a place of resistance through an economy and ecology of darkness; what moves in secrecy and returns. In this work nature transmits testimonies and warnings as device for the local struggle of a children’s former labor banana plantation in Mimbeng against a German female Goddess ‘Camissonae’ whose mirage manifestation is inspired by early 19th century German literature. The sonic project draws on the role of the scientific perpetrator rather than the native as subject and counter-reacts to the technologies of sound recordings and transmissions used in early 20th century. The significance of sound transmission is dependent on a time-travel through frequencies of nature, secrets and darkness before being audible to urban structures.
Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro's and Gilles Aubry's transdisciplinary works engage with both decolonial and eco-critical/ecological perspectives to re-imagine African feminist voices and resistance legacies through a necessary process of entanglements between nature and culture, the environment, technologies and epistemic violence.
Black A(n)thena is featured in Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt "Minor Cosmopolitalisms" 2018 | ICA Live Art Festival Cape Town South Africa 2018 | "As It Rises Into The Air: On Listening Practices" Goethe Institut Mumbai India 2019 | Tuned City Messene Greece 2018 | TURKU Performance Festival TEHDAS Theatre Manilla 2019 | A Handful Of Dust 2020
exhibition in Mumbai, India 2019
As It Rises Into The Air: Listening in Practice
curated by Juana Awad
As It Rises Into The Air: Listening in Practice
curated by Juana Awad
commissioned by Düsseldorf SpielHaus, 2019