People's Stories
Peopleʼs Stories ‒ Past and Present:
Bridging the silenced and liminal spaces of African imagery
Research Project | Visual Contributions | Exhibition Formats | Public & Online Debates | Rights and Restitution symposium | Mapping | Podcast | Screenings | Ecole du Soir
“People’s Stories- Past and Present: Bridging the silenced and liminal spaces of African Imagery” is a multi-disciplinary art and culture project taking place in two editions: Senegal (2022) and Morocco (2023). The project brings together archive researchers, artists and filmmakers to interpret, rethink and re appropriate the archive. Engaging with the archive is not to simply delve into history and memory in order to look backwards but rather to use that past knowledge – the bits we can unearth of it – as a tool to reinterpret our current reality and reimagine an alternative future. The current debates on restitution open a gap that requires research and appropriation of images that have been silenced and disconnected from their lineage. Thus, engaging artistically with images and sounds of our past is a formula to help us design a new grammar in order to revisit and re-write history from a Southern perspective.
COLLABORATION is proposed as a possible tool for restoring the interrupted and severed connections between the generations and the geographies of Africa, including the artificial schism between the South and the North of the African continent . THE PERSPECTIVE is inherently from the South seeking to invert the gaze that captured the images and held them hostage. RESTITUTION and the decolonization of the image is the building site of multiple intersecting pathways attempting to reconnect official History (both colonial and post-colonial) with people’s Memory. The role of the artist’s memory in making or re-making the archive is fundamental, for who else is better placed to ensure an uninterrupted chain of social and political memory translating of yesteryear’s legacy into today’s vocabulary.
Regional Links
Interconnections between the peoples on the African continent are age old and often forgotten; How do we restore spaces of cultural harmony that go beyond colonial borders to bridge the artificial divide between the South and the North of the African continent? Can commonalities and shared histories be resurrected through interrogating multiple formats of archive? This program attempts to do so through Senegal and Morocco as a starting point since the 2 countries have shared uninterrupted connections since the 16th century‒ the relations albeit turbulent ‒ are anchored in cultural and trade exchange dating back to the Saʼadi dynasty.
This multiplicity of telling a single tale from various vantage points inspires the multiple formats that will be exhibited in both Europe and Africa . The exhibitions will be followed by a multidisciplinary debate on questions of restitution, decolonization and contextualization of archives which will be conducted within the framework of a Symposium held as a module within DOX BOX’s Documentary Convention.
The program is divided into 3 phases within each country:
The first phase invites archive researchers to interact critically with the archive including how to collect and use it. Mapping the findings, logging and indexing existing material will be an ongoing process culminating in the launch of a dedicated website “Mapping the Archive” at the end of the 2-year program.
The second phase is organised as an Agora where researchers, filmmakers ,visual artists, performers and musicians engage with locally found archival material of all formats. A series of public lectures, podcasts and performances are proposed . This collaborative phase aims to pin down what each of the artists wishes to produce for the following phase of the program.
The third phase is centred around exhibitions of the artworks, performances and visual contributions both in our 2 hub countries (Senegal and Morocco) as well as in partner institutions around Europe. The final event of the program is a 3-day symposium on questions of restitution, decolonization and contextualization of archives which will be proposed as a Module within DOX BOX’s annual Documentary Convention.
Senegal
8th February 2022 – ongoing
Archive Research Project
Workshops / Screenings / Ecole du Soir
This phase aims to shift the mind set of archive researchers by proposing multiple visual and sonic approaches through the lived experience of speakers, academics, artists and thinkers. Starting in February of each year. The 7 weeks phase relies on a series of debates/talks accompanied by screenings that provoke dialogue and reveal methodologies. Through hands-on experience, the Archive Researchers and Filmmakers address transmission of knowledge, alternative archiving methods and methodologies of research, as well as current archive practice within the visual industry.
In Hub 1 (Senegal), the filmmakers producing the archive based documentaries are :
Hamedine Kane (Visual Artist/ Filmmaker), Ibaaku (Musician/ Filmmaker), filmmaker Maky Madiba Sylla (Musician/filmmaker).
Six archive researchers were selected to take part in the program:
Malick Seck, Ndeye Fatou Thiam, Ndeye Mane Toure, Sada Kane, Tabara Korka Ndiaye and Fode Diakho.
Invited speakers:
Jihan El-Tahri, Ali Essafi, Omar Berrada, Ibrahima Wane, Malick Ndiaye, Felwine Sarr, Lea Forestier, Kader Attia, Sahbi Kraiem, Lea Morin and Nabil Djedouani.
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19th- 26th May 2022
AGORA/Dak’Art OFF
Screenings / Public and Online Talks / Performance / Exhibition. A closed Brainstroming session will gather all the program participants to reflect on Archive practices.
The week-long Agora will be held during the Dak’Art Biennale in Senegal in May 2022. People’s Stories- Past and Present will be part of the official Dak’Art OFF program taking place within our 3 partner’s spaces. Our proposed Biennale OFF contributions will include Public talks, screenings and a performance as well as an exhibition. The brainstorming session will be concluded with artist deciding what they wish to produce for the final exhibition of the program.
The different iterations of the program in Senegal are conducted in collaboration with our 3 partner venues, RAW Material Company, Kenu– le LAB’Oratoire des Imaginaires & Centre Yennenga.
Public Programme
22.05.2022
7pm Performance: SYMPOSIUM REHEARSAL
Keziah Jones & Qudus (Event here)
Venue: Kenu- le LAB’Oratoire des Imaginaires // Comico Rue OKM 22, Ouakam, Dakar
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- 23.05.2022
5pm Screening: THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (2018) (Event here)
7pm Exhibition Opening : Inverse Surveillance Project (Event here)
Assia Boundaoui
Venue: Yennenga // Rue GD 62, Dakar, Senegal
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24.05.22
4pm Agora public talk: SACRED FRAGMENTS ? : Interrogating our Archival Heritage (Event Link)
With Mohanad Yaqubi, Onyeka Igwe, Kodwo Eshun, Ali Essafi. Moderated by Jihan El Tahri.
Feat. screening of Looking for Lost Captions by Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Venue: RAW Material Company // Villa 2a ZONE B, Senegal
9pm Screening: NOUS LES NOIRS (Event here)
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25.05.22
9 pm SCREENING: SPECIALISED TECHNIQUE and LUMUMBA: DEATH OF A PROPHET (Event here)
Curated by June Givanni
Venue: Yennenga // Rue GD 62, Dakar, Senegal
Morrocco
January/ February 2023 – ongoing
Archive Research Project
Workshops / Screenings / Ecole du Soir
This phase consists of a theoretical element (engaging speakers, academics, artists and thinkers), starting in January/February of each year. The 7 weeks phase will rely on a series of debates/talks accompanied by screenings which will provide the space for dialogue and reveal methodologies. Throughout the first 7 weeks, the archive researchers and filmmakers will engage in hands-on experiences that target the transmission of knowledge about topics like: alternative archiving methods and practices, methodologies of research, activating archive locations, tracking rights and acquisite.
In Hub 1 (Morocco) 3 filmmakers will be chosen to produce the archive based documentaries. Also six archive researchers will be selected to take part in the project.
May 2023
AGORA
Brainstroming / Screenings / Public and Online Talks / Performance / Exhibition
The project invites participating artists, researchers and curators to come together for a week-long Agora. Contributions will include Public talks, screenings and a performance as well as an exhibition.
Partners
The Research Programme and Agora is happening in collaboration with our 4 partner venues: Dar Al-Ma’mun, Cinémathèque de Tanger, The Bouanani Archives and Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM).
Exhibitions are planned 2023 to be happening in Morocco, Germany and maybe other places.
Also at the end of the year 2023 we are planning a Symposium in the frame of the Documentary Convention.
More detailed information will be shared at a later point on this webpage.
Collaborators and Partners
Collaborating Artists over the coming two years:
John Akomfrah, ALIBETA, Younès Baba-Ali, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Ali Essafi, Ibaaku, Onyeka Igwe, Keziah Jones, Hamedine Kane, Maky Madiba Sylla, Kamila Metwaly, Katy Léna N’diaye, Qudus Onikeku, The Otolith Group and Mohanad Yaqubi.
Curators:
Marie Helene Pereira, Omar Berrada, June Givanni, Chiara Figone
Partners and Collaborators
Archive Kabinett (Germany), Archive Milano (Italy), Art Gallé and D’art (Mauritania), Berliner Union-Film Ateliers (Germany), Bouanani Archives (Morocco), Centre for Research on AudioVisual Memory Practices (Belgium) CRAMP by KASK, Cinémathèque de Tanger (Morocco), Dar Al-Maʼmûn (Morocco), Direction de la Cinématographie et L’image (Senegal), DOK Leipzig (Germany), June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive (UK), KENU – LAB’Oratoire des Imaginaires (Senegal), Moroccan Cinema Center (CCM – Centre Cinématographique Marocain), RAW Material Company (Senegal), Yennenga Center (Senegal).
With the support of TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) and the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), Ford Foundation and Fopica.
