A442Hz in Afiriperforma Biennial 2013
My “A442Hz” will be screened within the 1St Afiriperforma Biennial, Harare, Zimbabwe on November 8-22 2013
1st AFiRIperFOMA Biennial puts Africa on the map of contemporary performance art
MNEMORIC
1st AFiRIperFOMA Biennial will be held under the general title of “Mnemonic”. A mnemonic is a device used to support the memorization of ideas and materials – an aid to human memory. The title is to be understood as an allegory of the powerful multi-dimensionality of the continent’s past and contemporary history.
The participating artists in the Biennial will focus on profound issues of identity, the power of objects, as well as spiritual and cultural transmigration in Africa. They will perform in public spaces attracting the attention of people passing by as well as in institutional contexts such as galleries.
The title connotes “Aide-mémoire” in French and is reflecting the creative attitude in the use of symbolic contents in Africa. American author and anthropologist Peter Farb (1978) observed that:
“When people form a social group, they must have some way to identify the different network of kin to which they belong, and also to display their particular status. Such distinctions would not be visible if people went about stark naked. So they declare their identity by placing symbols in the obvious places: on the body itself”.
The concept here, goes beyond any restrict literary meaning or usage, to a wider, metaphorical meaning like a refined deliberate shifting of knowledge: it is unwrapping new perspectives of investigation, research, transmission and perception of the African continent.
Press Release