A collaboration between the members of SAVVY Contemporary  who put together songs that are in resonance to the topic of LABO*R. 

This mixtape is in conversation with the exhibition "LABO*R: AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE" curated by Billy Fowo, Mokia Laisin, Abhishek Nilamber. 

https://savvy-contemporary.com/en/projects/2024/labor/

Tracklist:
Stimela, Hugh Masekela
Tears for Johannesburg, Abbey Lincoln
Work, Bob Marley & The Wailers
Igualada, La Muchacha
Work Song, Nina Simone
Duerme Negrito, Mercedes Sosa
08 Two Sides Of Silence, Linton Kwesi Johnson
Esta Tierra No Es Mia, Sexteto Tabala
Je Vais A Yaoundé, Tala André Marie
A pesar de voce, Chico Buarque 
Bambara, Miriam Makeba
Opiniao, Ze Ketti
We are coming home, Pat Thomas

Mixtape curated and edited by Manuela García Aldana

LABO*R AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE

Within the project LABO*R
AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE we are honored to welcome "Ntatemogolo Speaks! Prof Kgositsile revists Medu Art Ensemble" 

Khulu Skenjana reads Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile’s 1983 ‘Culture and Resistance in South Africa’

9 October 2016

Respondents: Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile, Masello Motana, Khulu Skenjana and Dr. Lindelwa Dalamba.

This #longstorySHORT speshal edition was made possible as a partnership between Keleketla! Library and Wits School of Arts as part of the Another Roadmap School project.

More on  LABO*R
AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE:
https://savvy-contemporary.com/en/projects/2024/labor/

LSS/Keleketla/AR/WSOA

Ntatemogolo Speaks! Prof Kgositsile revists Medu Art Ensemble

Tambisan sa Sining, 2024

Audio files of Tambisan sa Sining for LABO*R: AN INVITATION TO ACTION…  A BASIS FOR HOPE exhibition

HINDI KO PRESIDENTE compilation - The entries in the compilation combine audio samples of interviews and speeches of activists and mass leaders with music from music producers of Tambisan sa Sining. Hindi ko Presidente is Tambisan’s effort to educate, organize, and mobilize the cultural workers and the Filipino masses to frustrate the impending return of the Marcos clan to the highest seat of power in the Philippines.


Tambisan sa Sining songs:

Dakilang Pakikibaka (The Great Struggle) is a protest marching song that traces the anti-colonial Filipino revolution from the victory of the 1896 revolution against the Spanish conquest up to the current national-democratic revolution against US imperialism. It tells of the participation of the masses as the motive and leading force that would reclaim the democratic rights long denied to Filipinos, as well as the revolutionary path towards genuine sovereignty and thereafter, class liberation.
Dakilang Pakikibaka is often performed by cultural workers, activists, and unionists at mobilization programs, union assemblies, picket lines, strike centers, and other relevant assemblies. In these assemblies, the song aids the oppressed sectors of the Philippine population to articulate their aspirations of national democracy, and eventually, a society without oppression and exploitation.

Dakilang Pakikibaka - Tambisan sa Sining / LABO*R: AN INVITATION TO ACTION…  A BASIS FOR HOPE

Tambisan sa Sining, 2024

Audio files of Tambisan sa Sining for LABO*R: AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE exhibition

HINDI KO PRESIDENTE compilation - The entries in the compilation combine audio samples of interviews and speeches of activists and mass leaders with music from music producers of Tambisan sa Sining. Hindi ko Presidente is Tambisan’s effort to educate, organize, and mobilize the cultural workers and the Filipino masses to frustrate the impending return of the Marcos clan to the highest seat of power in the Philippines.

Tambisan sa Sining songs:

Kung Patay na ang Kabayo (If the horse has died), exhibits a colloquial songwriting accompanied by the standard blues tradition. The title is from the Filipino idiom: Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo (What use is the hay if the horse is dead?).
Kung Patay na ang Kabayo renders the general experience of the Filipino proletariat amidst the capitalist system. The persona laments his dismal outlook in life: inadequate wages against the rising cost of basic services and commodities has forced him into a debt cycle. He further reveals more details about the exploitative tendency of capital, mainly the consolidated effort of the capitalist to maximize profit margins by increasing productivity (unpaid overtime work, increased workload) and keeping the workers’ wages low.

Kung Patay Na Ang Kabayo - Tambisan sa Sining / LABO*R: AN INVITATION TO ACTION…  A BASIS FOR HOPE

NARROWCASTING  19.07.2024  16:00–18:00
WITH  Pisitakun Kuantalaeng

Pisitakun Kuantalaeng hosted a listening session and a live performance. In the listening session he shared his research on protest and revolutionary songs from Thailand since the 1970´s until today. It was followed by a live performance of his recent album KUANTALENG. His third solo release on Chinabot riffs on the Thai-language translation of his last name [ควรแถลง], which means “should make a statement”. As reflected in the playful tracklisting and album art, he imagines the album as a recreation of his homeland, showing real wistful longing while making a sly dig at the naive vision of Thailand as it’s understood in his new home in Europe. 

This is event is one of the sonic contributions to the SOUNDING LABO*R – part of our current exhibition LABO*R. AN INVITATION TO ACTION… A BASIS FOR HOPE. It is a sculpture, a listening station, a sonic space with filled with sound by Jasmina Al-Qaisi, SAVVY Kwata (Kerala), Emmanuel Tanka Fonta, Pisitakun Kuantalaeng, Manuela Garcia Aldana. Lovingly designed and created by Santiago Doljanin and Ola Zielińska.

Labor

LABO*R with Pisitakun Kuantalaeng

NARROWCASTING  02.08.2024  16:00–18:00
WITH  Kathleen Bomani

In this listening session and conversation, Kathleen Bomani will break down – bit by bit, element per element – her sound piece "Sisalandia" which sonically explores landscapes of indigenous land dispossession/ colonial terror/ forced labour or making of labour/ ecocides/ plantation economies through the lens of a plant, Agave Sisalana, whilst connecting with present day atrocities such as the continuing dehumanisation of African migrants by Europe. 

KATHLEEN BOMANI is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and scholar whose work explores the interconnectedness of erasure and memory while confronting the enduring impact of colonialism. Her artistic practice has been shaped by the complexities of migration and displacement, having spent twelve years as an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Born in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania in 1985, she has been intermittently working and residing in Berlin for the past four years. Drawing on extensive research and archival work, including court documents, news articles, and personal testimonies, she seeks to disrupt the official record, offering alternative perspectives that confront systems of violence and erasure. Engaging in a spatial exploration, Bomani's artistic journey reveals the profound importance of forgotten locations that hold collective memories, notions of freedom, and alternative spaces that exist alongside society. Her work emphasises the critical need to metaphorically protect and reconstruct these spaces, ensuring the preservation of memory which exposes injustices that often go by unacknowledged.

Wetransfer Sisalandia-With-Kathleen-Y-Aif 2024-08-03 1824

LABO*R with Kathleen Bomani: Sislandia

BROADCASTING  11.08.2024  17:00–18:00
WITH Jasmina Al-Qaisi

(selected work)
a disobedience dense-dance 
           a dance 
A sounding poem about displacement, for a drained wetland.
                             in between 
A lullaby about a night-shift worker, a guard at the now privatized salt factory who decides to overlook when countless mysterious beings occupy the building he is guarding. 
                       the 
A premonition about girls wearing similar shoes and gossiping while gardening with a pavement construction worker. 
         breaks 
Featuring: Valentina Nicolae - Trebuie să plâng un pic/ I have to cry a little; Palestine Sunbird; Syrian Woodpecker; Water and air recordings from Sulina, Danube Delta with Sharing Food Writing Recipes 2024; EMEL - Naci en Palestina

LABO*R with Jasmina Al-Qaisi

BROADCASTING  18.08.2024  17:00–18:00
WITH SAVVY Kwata Kerala

The podcast will focus on redefining/reconceptualizing cultural work and labour outside neoliberal capitalist frameworks in the context of Kerala. It aims to explore themes such as cultural work and invisible labour, dis-visibilisation of labour of marginalised communities, women in cultural work in the context of Kerala, the need for a radical pedagogical intervention to enable cultural resistance and more. 

SAVVY KWATA KERALA is an embodied research on the cultural economy of Kerala. In this podcast moderated by cultural worker Arshootti, we hear educators Asha Achy Joseph and Kavitha Balakrishnan comment on invisiblised labour in the Indian state of Kerala.  

ARSHOOTTI is a cultural worker and researcher from Kerala, currently based in Scotland. With an academic background in media and communication, social work with specialisation in community development, and gender studies, she explores the intersection of these disciplines. Her current research explores the topic of women in armed resistance as a site of decolonial feminist theory and praxis. As a cultural worker, she is also engaged in decolonial feminist film curatorial practices as a tool for generating counter-hegemonic narratives. 

DR. ASHA ACHY JOSEPH is the Dean of the School of Communication at Sacred Heart College, Kochi, and a practice-based researcher and filmmaker. In the last twenty-five years, she has done research projects at institutions including UGC, wrote articles, scripted, translated and subtitled films, translated and edited books related to Cinema along with making fiction as well as nonfiction film and TV content. She is one of the founding members of Women in Cinema Collective.

KAVITHA BALAKRISHNAN is an artist, bi-lingual author (in English & Malayalam), curator and art educator based in Kerala, South of India. She has an MFA in Art History from MS University Baroda (1998). Her PhD was a cultural study of the Illustrated print pictures in 20th century India, specifically the periodicals in Malayalam language. Since 2000, Kavitha has engaged with the changing scenario of practising, writing and educating art and art-history in India, contributing critical reviews in widely published major Indian journals of art like The Marg, Art & Deal, TAKE ON ART and also in the Journal of Illustration Research, Intellect Publication, London. Kavitha finds her artistic language at the generic crossroads of the disciplines of Art, Art History and Poetry. Collaborating with Charlie and Hilary Holt, she has been exhibiting art works at various locations like Merzbarn Cumbria UK, Manchester Metropolitan University, Loafers art Cafe in Fort Kochi. In collaboration with artist Riyas Komu, she has curated Re-Curating Print Pictures at the Kashi Art Cafe as part of India's first Biennale. She has also done experimental displays at various Poetry Festivals in Kerala. For the last nineteen years, she has been teaching Art History at Govt. College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, Kerala.

LABO*R with SAVVY Kwata Kerala

NARROWCASTING  26.07.2024  16:00–18:00
WITH Tanka Fonta

Philosophies of Colour Indexing

Join us as we explore the intricate and often misunderstood concept of colour indexing – the practice of categorising people based on physical appearance. This radio program delves into the historical development and implications of race theory, tracing its origins from ancient cultural categorizations to its promotion during the 18th and 19th centuries by figures like Carl Linnaeus and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. We examine how these classifications, rooted in pseudoscience, have shaped societal perceptions and created psychological barriers.

Through this thought-provoking discussion, we challenge listeners to reconsider the conditioned mindsets that perpetuate divisiveness and inequality. By understanding the nature of perception and the symbolic use of language, we reveal how conflating physical attributes with psychological traits has distorted our view of reality. Tune in to gain insights into how recognizing race as a social construct can help dismantle exclusionary philosophies and foster a more interconnected and interdependent human society.

TANKA FONTA is a visual artist, poet/writer, composer, and philosopher whose works document the variegated expressivity of human consciousness and its expressions beyond the written and spoken word, philosophies and psychology of visual phenomenology, the expressive psychologies of thought, epistemologies of perceptions of intangible and tangible expressions, and the physics of mind and colours. His work also documents the evocative languages of mind, evolving ecologies of thought in its materialised and precipitated forms in mythopoetic narratives, embedded organic thought dictionaries from deep-time, and the evolutionary biographies and historicity of humanity and the visual and sonic imprints of thought on the nature of reality and actuality in the everyday living experiences of humanity. Fonta was born in Cameroon; he lives and works in Berlin.

LABO*R with Tanka Fonta: Philosophies of Colour Indexing

As part of SOCIETY: OR INFINITE REHEARSALS, we present BETWEEN RIOT AND CHOIR – a series of interconnected solo performances in which dance and movement-based practitioners consider and respond to the conceptual proposals of this exhibition and research project. The performance series, which takes its title from a text by Fred Moten on the social nature of dance and movement, materialises the connections and histories that each dancing body, even when it dances alone, is inevitably linked to.

We think here about specific cultural traditions of movement; choreographies learned through and via the particular abilities of a body; somatic practices, contact improvisation – and overall, the relationality built into dancing alongside another (or anothers) in groups that might move with the asymmetrical, turbulent rhythm of a riot or protest as well the harmony of a choir.

In his performance "A liminal jaunt: an excursion across space and through time, nothing more and nothing less", Djibril Sall drops pretenses of perfection and of polish in a journey through the space of SAVVY Contemporary. Tapping into a language of (black/african/f*g/however you perceive him) improvisation, he explores what it is to just, receive. And reciprocate.

DJIBRIL SALL is a queer Senegalese performer, choreographer, and writer. He was selected for inclusion in Tanz im August’s Interconnecting Ecology and Dance Series in 2023 and was furthermore an invited artist for Tanznacht’s 25 year anniversary. His most recent evening length work, evening.haiku, premiered at Sophiensaele as a part of the 31st Tanztage Festival and it was chosen for inclusion in the 2022 [8:Tension] Young Choreographers Series at ImPulsTanz International Vienna Dance Festival. He has presented and performed works at Ballhaus Ost and radialsystem in Berlin and in various festivals and institutions including Stedelijk in Amsterdam, DARK MOFO in Australia, and Centre Pompidou in Paris. He was the 2024 Berlin Cultural Exchange Fellow at Cite International des Arts in Paris and now he is an inaugural resident at Emerging Change Festival where he is developing a new solo to be premiered at Sophiensaele in Berlin, and Dansens Hus in Oslo among others for his work on queer and racial trauma. He has worked with artists such as Jeremy Shaw, Sorour Darabi, Gaelle Choisne, Frank Willens, Constantin Hartenstein, Vladimir Miller, Michele Rizzo, Laure Heindl, Yanna Thonnes, and now, Bishop Black. He is currently developing a new solo to be premiered in 2025. At Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Djibril can be seen as a performer in Flight of the Canaries (2023) by Bishop Black.



SOCIETY: Between Riot & Choir with Djibril Sall

As part of SOCIETY: OR INFINITE REHEARSALS, we present BETWEEN RIOT AND CHOIR – a series of interconnected solo performances in which dance and movement-based practitioners consider and respond to the conceptual proposals of this exhibition and research project. The performance series, which takes its title from a text by Fred Moten on the social nature of dance and movement, materialises the connections and histories that each dancing body, even when it dances alone, is inevitably linked to.

We think here about specific cultural traditions of movement; choreographies learned through and via the particular abilities of a body; somatic practices, contact improvisation – and overall, the relationality built into dancing alongside another (or anothers) in groups that might move with the asymmetrical, turbulent rhythm of a riot or protest as well the harmony of a choir.

For the second iteration, we welcome Martha Hincapié Charry. Her performance is based on eco-somatic / ecofeminist perspectives with a focus on Planet Earth, the Earth as a woman. A woman who has been subjected to global-north extractivism and the abuses of corporations, the biggest drivers of climate change.

The proposal attempts to decolonize stage practices by creating a space for reflection on the relationship of humans with nature and the consequences of everyday actions in terms of the disappearance of habitats, species and groups of native inhabitants, as is still happening, to give just an example, in the 9 countries to which the Amazon rainforest belongs. 

HECATOMB II – Movements, and rituals for the renewal of the world takes action, focusing on the knowledge that indigenous peoples protect 80% of the world's biodiversity, even though they make up only 5% of the world's population. This second part of the trilogy aims to open a dialogue between ancestral cultures, visions and wisdoms. 

MARTHA HINCAPIÉ CHARRY  is a BIPoC Colombian artist, curator, choreographer, performer, and researcher. She earned her Master’s degree in Arts from the University of the Arts, UdK Berlin. She studied dance in Colombia and completed her dance theatre and solo dance studies at the Folkwang University in Essen under the direction of Pina Bausch. In 2019, she received the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship.

Her creations have been showcased at festivals and venues across Europe, Asia, and the so-called Americas. She serves as the artistic director of the Plataforma/SurReal Berlin Festival. Her curatorial practice examines (de)colonial processes and the survival strategies of artists migrating to Europe or engaging in local utopias. In 2021/22, she was an associate curator at Radialsystem Berlin.

Hincapié Charry has developed several unlearning spaces focused on underrepresented BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) expressions. She facilitates a dialogue between continents through a transversal reflection on the body, addressing themes such as climate chaos, extinction, the human/more-than-human relationship, and the interplay between the visible and invisible worlds.

SOCIETY: Between Riot & Choir with Martha Hincapié Charry

As part of SOCIETY: OR INFINITE REHEARSALS, we present BETWEEN RIOT AND CHOIR – a series of interconnected solo performances in which dance and movement-based practitioners consider and respond to the conceptual proposals of this exhibition and research project. The performance series, which takes its title from a text by Fred Moten on the social nature of dance and movement, materialises the connections and histories that each dancing body, even when it dances alone, is inevitably linked to.

We think here about specific cultural traditions of movement; choreographies learned through and via the particular abilities of a body; somatic practices, contact improvisation – and overall, the relationality built into dancing alongside another (or anothers) in groups that might move with the asymmetrical, turbulent rhythm of a riot or protest as well the harmony of a choir.

For the last performance in this series, we welcome our current artist in residence Otniel Tasman. The performer, choreographer and Lengger uses the body as a political instrument. This performance explores the radicalism of the living body as a form of struggle, challenging conventional ways of feeling and creating new, imaginative, and poetic experiences. It combines ethical-political commitment with transfeminist and queer awareness, re-examining diversity, dismantling privileges, and acknowledging vulnerabilities. Otniel Tasman employs political and decolonial bodies, perspectives, feelings, and animalization to deconstruct the spirit of lengger. The work also addresses the social classification of living beings and the dominance of subaltern bodies as institutional violence techniques, shaping our perception of the body and the world.

About his practice, Otniel exlains:

Over the course of 12 years, I have been exploring gender conflict as a practitioner of the traditional Banyumas Lengger dance, commonly understood as a "cross-gender" ritual dance performed by male dancers in female dress. Lengger encapsulates our indigenous symbols of fertility, spirituality, and cosmology, including the spiritually embodied concept called “nyawiji”, meaning “when two become one”, and this is the foundation of my creative process.

Through my creation journey within which I have developed contemporary performances, made dance films, produced a Lengger festival, and written a book about Lengger, I have received new values resulting from the exploration process, not only regarding the forms of the artworks, but also through my thought process, academic knowledge, and collisions with other forms of media.

Lengger is unique because it is danced by men wearing female costumes and make-up, and the dancers are commonly known as Lengger Lanang (male Lengger). To become a Lengger, one has to equip oneself with traditional Lengger art skills and also practice spirituality in the Lengger cosmology. To this day, I continue to explore Lengger-based ideas and contemporary choreography for my work.


OTNIEL TASMAN  is a choreographer and a Lengger (a cross-gender traditional art practitioner belonging to the Banyumas tradition) from the Banyumas region of Central Java, Indonesia. He is committed to voicing gender justice and exploring the wisdom of the Lengger tradition, which has fluid gender values that align with the philosophy and spirituality of life in the Banyumas tradition. In addition to choreographing dance works both with traditional and contemporary approaches, Otniel initiated the Jagad Lengger Festival as a socio-cultural choreographic practice to excavate, nurture and advance the wisdom of the Banyumas Lengger tradition, as well as produce and promote local knowledge that lives and is lived by the Banyumas Lengger community. His book Lengger is my Religion (2021) is one of Otniel's efforts to share the experience of living life as a Lengger and to dialogue with the public about the body, gender, tradition and spirituality.


SAVVY Contemporary

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