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By Sarah Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 4, 2008; Page C05
"Les Ecailles de la Mémoire" ("The Scales of Memory") takes the past as its subject, but there is nothing dreamy, dusty or academic about it. A collaboration between the all-female Urban Bush Women and the all-male Compagnie Jant-Bi, it has the force of uncorked acid.
Performed over the weekend at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, this new work proposed an answer to the question that can trouble so many victimized groups wrestling with bloody histories: How does one live with the trauma?
Slavery and racism were the focus of these dancers, all of whom are either native Africans or of African heritage. Jant-Bi, under the direction of Germaine Acogny, a highly respected longtime promoter of African dance, is based in Senegal. The multinational members of Urban Bush Women, led by the gifted Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, are headquartered in Brooklyn. But "Les Ecailles" is more than a screed against specific crimes; there were deeply human and universal truths to be mined in this view of a people united in collective memory, sifting through the pain, and finally emerging with an identity that is stronger for the experience.
"Les Ecailles" featured seven members from each troupe, who traveled together to various sites in the South that are important in the history of slavery and the civil rights movement. They then collaborated on the 90-minute work at L'Ecole des Sables, Acogny's academy of African dance in Senegal.
Churned-up anger and defiance were palpable in the piece; sheer explosive energy in scenes of being bound, of being auctioned off and thrashed into exhaustion, played a major role. This was no surprise coming from Urban Bush Women, a group known for its exceptional poetry as well as a distinctive athleticism. Together with the magnetic presence of the Jant-Bi men -- astounding for their light-footed grace as well as a driving muscular power -- the impact fairly roared off the stage.
There were, however, moments when a perplexing opaqueness set in -- when the dancers declaim at length in unfamiliar tongues, for instance, or shout incomprehensible accusations at the audience. Eloquence was best achieved when their bodies told the stories, for example, as the men and women separately bubbled and boiled with expressions of suffering and resistance, then stumbled, panting and seemingly exhausted, into a group dance that grew more and more exuberant. It was a vision of communal strength that felt somehow inevitable, a renewal of the spirit that comes from rechanneling the energy.
There was no lack of belief here, no doubt that the horrors and injustices represented onstage are genuinely felt. The look was homespun -- the dancers wore casual slacks and wrap skirts that suggest no specific place or time -- but never prosaic. The music was a principal asset in establishing the roiling emotional atmosphere, with an original score by Fabrice Bouillon-Laforest, as well as various vocals, all manner of energizing drum riffs and poetry by the Sufi mystic Rumi. Proof that the past is never truly past, "Les Ecailles" is an extraordinary view of history's footprint on the present, and an invitation to those ghosts that haunt us all. Here, they may find, if not peace, then affirmation.
DANCE REVIEW, March 8, 2008
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic
Highly recommended
You have just one more opportunity to see "Les Ecailles de la Memoir" ("The Scales of Memory"), the masterpiece of dance, theater, ritual, prayer, sexual behavior, social norms, history and geography that received its Chicago premiere Thursday night at the Dance Center of Columbia College, and completes its all-too-brief run there tonight. Seize the moment or you will regret it.
This mesmerizing 90-minute work is the result of a remarkable collaboration between two troupes from different sides of the world who clearly share a linked ancestry -- the Brooklyn-based, all-female Urban Bush Women troupe led by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Germaine Acogny's Compagnie Jant-Bi, a group of male dancers rooted in a school in Senegal where both traditional African and contemporary dance styles are taught. And watching as it burst forth on the Dance Center's stage, the question that kept coming to mind was this: How could a piece with such mystery, depth and detail of character and motivation also possess such an amazing sense of immediacy and spontaneity?
The seamless way in which each section develops, is then tied to the next and is subtly laced together into the most complex overall fabric has a touch of magic, even witchcraft about it. This is a work that strikes you like a lightning bolt and continues to exert its electrifying charge long after you've left the theater.
Set to a vast range of intricately tooled musical accompaniments -- from drumming to chants to bits of spoken text and more -- "The Scales of Memory" unfolds in a series of deeply primal, cross-cultural scenes. It begins in the half-light as four groups of dancers slowly move into their own worlds, like exiles nervously seeking refuge.
A lone man on the road hugs a bundle that might contain all his worldly possessions. A group of boy soldiers that seems supremely threatening subtly morphs into a team of workers who might be heading back from a hard shift in the mines, their red shirts soaking up the sweat. A circle of congregants offers up prayers. A hunting party in the wild seems ominous at first, but cedes into an almost comical encounter with nature.
A slave woman on the block reveals her inner torment. Other women are treated badly at times, adoringly at others. The high sexual energy that is palpable throughout comes together in a series of sensationally realized mating rituals that seem to shift from a rural African village, to an urban street corner, to a high school dance.
The work puts near superhuman demands on the ensemble of 14 highly individualistic dancers who perform together as if they grew up as extended family and neighbors. Each of them is stellar and fearless in their emotional openness and aerobic fortitude, with Babacar Ba, Cire Beye, Abdoulaye Kane, Pape Ibrahima Ndiaye (Kaolak), Ousmane Ndiaye (Bane), Bertrand Tchebo Saky and Abib Sow from Jant-Bi, and Maria Bauman, Nora Chipaumire, Catherine Denecy, Paloma McGregor, Love Muwwakkil, Samantha Speis and Bennalldra Williams from the Bush Women.
J. Russell Sandifer's lighting is exquisite throughout, as are Naoko Nagata's evocative urban-meets-rural, historically accented costumes.
Just how often these two companies will be able to continue to join forces to perform this thrilling, emotionally charged work is the big question. But this production definitely should make a return visit to Chicago.
The four programmes cover a period of nearly twenty-five years, and bring together seminal works by producers and artists of the likes of Fernando Meirelles, João Moreira Salles, Tadeu Jungle, Eder Santos, and Rosângela Rennó, as well as recent work by Maurício Dias & Walter Riedweg, and Estúdio Bijari, among others. The prizewinners attest to the transformations in the use of electronic media since their inception, from early experiments in fields such as video art, documentary, and community TV, to the discovery of video as a contemporary tool of expression, and the convergence of languages such as documentary film, essay, dancing, and urban intervention.
Videobrasil 1983-2007 – Prizewinners’ Retrospective is part of the programme of SP Arte (www.sp-arte.com), an international art fair to feature, in its fourth edition, twenty-four hundred works by over one thousand different artists, represented by sixty-seven galleries, at the Biennial Pavilion. The SESC São Paulo booth at the fair will showcase other products by the institution and by Associação Cultural Videobrasil, such as the FF>>Dossier on-line publication, and the Videobrasil Authors Collection documentary film series.
Promoted by Associação Cultural Videobrasil and SESC São Paulo, with sponsorship from Petrobras, VB on Tour brings together works awarded at the 16th International Electronic Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil. Programme 1 features choices of the jury: Rawane’s Song, by Mounira Al Solh (Lebanon/The Netherlands); Revolving Door, by Alexandra Beesley & David Beesley (Australia); Juksa, by Maurício Dias & Walter Riedweg (Brazil-RJ/Switzerland); and Várzea, by Estúdio Bijari and Ricardo Iazzetta (Brazil-SP).
Programme 2 features work by artists awarded by the Videobrasil Residency Programme: Untitled (Zimbabwean Queen of Rave), by Dan Halter (Zimbabwe/South Africa); Weekend, by Federico Lamas (Argentina); Abismo virtual, by Eustáquio Neves (Brazil-MG); Canto de aves pampeanas 1, by Nicolás Testoni (Argentina); and Canto doce pequeno labirinto, by Caetano Dias (Brazil-BA).
Institutions and individuals interested in screening Videobrasil on Tour 2008-2009 should send e-mail requests to info@videobrasil.org.br
+ View programme trailer www.sescsp.org.br
Eustáquio Neves: “I am working on the series Horse in Motion [animation with photographs made by pioneer Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830-1904)], including film takes of horses falling down, and images recorded in a shooting range here,” he explains. “It is going to be a little provocation related to the death of cinema.”
Neves is the first of four artists who were awarded the Videobrasil WBK Vrije Academie Prize to arrive at The Hague. Granted by the Dutch institution, an interdisciplinary center for graduate art courses, the prize offers individual six-week residencies at the academy’s moving image department, which is coordinated by Tom van Vliet and counts on postproduction studios and rehearsals for installations and performances involving media.
At the end of the residency period, Neves will give a workshop at the Academy. The other artists who were granted the Videobrasil WBK Vrije Academie Prize, the Brazilians Danillo Barata and Marcellvs L., and Jamsen Law (Hong Kong/China), should undertake their programmes still in 2008. The Prize is part of the Videobrasil Residency Programme, which is backed by the Prince Claus Fund and aims to strengthen exchange actions offered to Brazilian, Latin American, and African artists.
A wide variety of work including a performance from Dinkies Sithole from South Africa, video installations by Vinima Gulati (India) and Monica Miranda (Portugal); Animation and drawings from Jairo Alfonso (Cuba) and a provocative installation by local artist Falcão showed the benefit of the two weeks of intense discussions that the workshop conduced. One work escaped the enclosure of the museum and installed itself on the pavement of the main avenue outside the museum. This piece, a collaboration between Eustaquio Neves (Brazil) and Yonamine (Angola), consisted of a large plastic pin-hole camera, in which passersby were invited to enter and catch a ‘magical’ glimpse of everyday life. A publication and blog are forthcoming and will document and disseminate the result of this successful workshop.
Artists responded to the landscape of Hoy, defined by its peat bogs and heather, with an experimental approach, often adapting their practices to new materials found in the landscape. Nirmal Hurry retrieved wool caught on fences in the surrounding fields to create subtle sculptures highlighting the delicacy of the material. Many of the workshop participants collaborated in creating a marimba from found materials and objects. The homemade instrument was used in a performance during the open day which involved members of the community trying their hand.
Other artists made historical references to the Island. Mimi Yong responded through various materials and techniques to the local lighthouses while Suzanne Grant became interested in Scapa Flow, a chief naval base during World War I and World War II and the site of scuttled German war ship Derfflinger. Grant presented for the open day a series of wax war ships which were lit by candle light. A further collaboration occurred around Hoy’s Dwafie Stane, were workshop participants climbed into the rocks cut-out and used its acoustics to create a sound piece documented on the website.
Joy used the experience to reflect upon the journey she made from London to Hoy, which she found took the same amount of time as travelling from London to Hobart in Tasmania! She explored this in various ways including a series of drawings made of the things she lost on her way to Hoy –and yes this did include her glasses!
The workshop was very much part of Hoys social calender, The Gabble End Theatre opened its doors organising an informal gathering for workshop attendees. The artists joined in with local dance classes in order to polish up their skills for a ceilidh hosted by the workshop at the Kirk and enjoyed by many on the Island.
Joy commented on the generosity of all involved in the workshop, from artists sharing equipment and knowledge, bouncing ideas off one another and discussing their practices, to those facilitating the workshop –Nicky Gear’s cooking was particularly commended! There are many photographs and more information on the website: http://3islands.org/3islands/
The programme involves two, four week “jamming” workshops held back to back. For each workshop, four international artists are invited to work alongside four local artists engaging with each other and the community in creative exploration.
Participating artists are: (MARCH) Shahram Entekhabi (Berlin, Germany); Abhinandita Mathur (Delhi & Bombay, India); Bundith Phunsombatlert (Bangkok, Thailand); Michael Townsend (New York, USA). And from Hong Kong, Cheng Yee-man (Gum) + Clara Cheung; Law Man-lok; Angela Su; Tse Pak-chai.
(APRIL) Eve Armstrong (Auckland, New Zealand); Michelle Brand (Manchester, UK); Sandra Nakamura (Lima, Peru); Alwin Reamillo (Fremantle, Western Australia). And from Hong Kong, Chan Yuk-keung, Kurt; Paul Chu; Sara Tse; Adrian Wong.
The base for the workshop will be Kowloon Technical School, providing an immediate interface with the students through lectures and the Student Ambassador scheme. As part of the Education and Outreach of the programme, the students will assist the artists in their work and guide the artists around the neighbourhood.
Additional events programmed into the residency include an Artists’ Talks on Saturday 29 March and Saturday 3 May, giving each artist the opportunity to introduce his or her practice to fellow artists on the programme as well as to the public.
Finally, in following the Triangle Arts Trust model the last week of the both residencies (15-18 April + 20 – 23 May) will see an open studio event inviting the public to engage with the artists’ process, research and work-in-progress that has come out of the programme. This event will also stimulate discussion between the artists and visitors about their experiences and work.
…We were all once an embryo. What was the experience like? This workshop gives a chance to visual artists to feel and express the experience of finding oneself in a common womb. A WOMB-land where the early form of humankind (as an embryo) once developed, lived and scattered. Actually, an Embryo is an ongoing phenomenal process in the reproduction of various lives on the planet whether through natural or artificial means. Our workshop encourages artists from all corners of the world to exploit this special experience revisiting their fantasy on the particular question and the feeling of being on the soil of the original home of humankind, Ethiopia…
The workshop is hosted at Asni Gallery located in the Ferensay Public Park in Addis Ababa, and follows the two week triangle model creating a platform for artists to work in collaboration or side-by-side for an intensive period of time without constraints of daily life. Participants will be provided with accommodation, and meals for the duration of the workshop.
Helen Barff participated in an open studio event from the 14-20 March which offered an opportunity for her, alongside fellow resident artists Mark Lumala from Uganda, Andrew Matseba from Botswana, Sadie Salim from Pakistan and Jane Tagg also from the UK to present their work in progress to local visitors to Greatmore Studios. Lock participated in a similar event in mid-February again alongside fellow resident artists at the Bag Factory and will present her work again in an exhibition at the studios running from Wednesday 26 February – Wednesday 2 April 2008.
As reciprocal to these fellowships Gasworks hosts three artists’ residencies running from the beginning of April to the end of June 2008. Mahmoud Khaled from Egypt and Andrew Esiebo from Nigeria are currently settling into their studios while Goddy Leye from Cameroon is due to join them shortly. Each artist will be supported by partner organisations Iniva, The Photographers Gallery and Southbank Centre respectively. To mark the beginning of their three month stay the artists will present their current practice and discuss converging interests in their lens based practices in a talk at Gasworks on Tuesday 29 April, 6.30 -8pm. See the website for further information: www.gasworks.org.uk
There will be 6 workshops around film this year: Film Directing (led by Gael Bernal Garcia of Mexico) Children Films Master Classes (led by Danish Film Institute) Acting for films Master class (by Ramsey Noah of Nigeria) Film Marketing (under Soko filam with Nollywood distributors/producers) New Media in Africa (led by the National Black Programming Consortium of USA) Development films producing workshop (Led by Don Atkins and GTZ).
A full list of all films to be will be up by 30th May.
We are also launching the Sembene Ousmane Award for development films.
This year from March 12 - 23, twelve professionals representing institutions in the fields of visual arts, design and other cultural disciplines from the Netherlands and countries where the Fund is active travelled to Bangladesh, India and Dubai.
The main objective of the Mondriaan Foundation is to offer Dutch participants a more global view of contemporary art and culture and to give them an idea of recent developments in the countries visited. The Prince Claus Fund’s focus is to encourage a dialogue and exchange among the participants and the artists and institutions they visit.
The selection of institutions includes galleries and museums. In Bangladesh, PCF Network partner DRIK coordinated the stay and the participants’ programme.
The Fund invited the following non-Dutch professionals to join the trip: Aleya Hamza, curator Contemporary Image Collective (Cairo, Egypt), Abdellah Karroum, curator and artist L’appartement 21 (Rabat, Morocco), Taiyana Pimentel, independent curator (Cuba, Mexico) and Defne Ayas, Adjunct Professor/ New York University in Shanghai and Programs Manager at Bizart/Arthub.
"Les écailles de la mémoire - scales of memory" by Jant-Bi
25 year SP Arte
Hoy Workshop in Orkneys, Scotland
Photograph by Eustáquio Neves who is now in the Netherlands