Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Monira Al Qadiri, Kader Attia, Judy Chicago, Torkwase Dyson, Romuald Hazoumè, Zanele Muholi, Otobong Nkanga

Prendre corps au monde

17 Feb — 20 May 2023

Ecological questions and the colonial past lie at the heart of the stories running through the latest creation, entitled Leçons de Ténèbres (Lessons of Darkness), by choreographer Betty Tchomanga. She has been invited to extend her project by curating an exhibition at Passerelle Centre d’Art Contemporain in Brest.

The "Leçons de Ténèbres" was originally a liturgical musical genre of the seventeenth century which sets to music "Jeremiah's Lamentations" about the destruction of Jerusalem in the Bible. It is also the title of a 1992 film by Werner Herzog on the 732 burning oil wells of Kuwait, set on fire by retreating Iraqi forces. The director presents us with an apocalyptic vision like a long poem on the end of the Earth.

The Leçons de Ténèbres by Betty Tchomanga evoke those who have disappeared, ancestors, and their ghosts. These lessons tell of darkness, explore the obscure, our hidden and long-buried stories.

"I designed this exhibition as the natural extension of my choreographic work and of the research associated with it. The works and artists I have chosen to invite are all linked to the thoughts, imaginings and images enriching my two latest creations, Mascarades and Leçons de Ténèbres.

I based my ideas on the notion of 'Giving shape to the world' developed by Malcom Ferdinand, Doctor in Political Philosophy, in his book A Decolonial Ecology, Thinking from the Caribbean World. In this essay he proposes a new way of tackling the ecological question by linking it to colonial history. The figure of the slave ship here appears as a political metaphor of a world characterised by relationships of domination. The ship-world... [lire plus]

Associate curator: Betty Tchomanga

As part of the DañsFabrik Festival, 2023
coordinated by Le Quartz, Scène nationale de Brest