Mohau Modisakeng em entrevista a Another Africa

© Mohau Modisakeng, Ditaola VI, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist and Brundyn+, Cape Town.

Mohau Modisakeng é um artista sul-africano que expôs recentemente na Galeria Brudyn, que actua entre a performance, a escultura e a fotografia e problematiza as relações entre as sociedades pós-coloniais e as suas histórias comuns. Nesta entrevista, fala da influência das cidades de Joanesburgo e Cidade do Cabo na sua obra, da criação em diáspora e do que significa criar na África do Sul no século XXI.

The cultural climate of both Cape Town and Johannesburg is informed and controlled by the legacy of a racialist history founded on segregation. Johannesburg is more interesting in the sense that it allowed for an influx of migrant labourers from all across Southern Africa and further.

Due to that particular characteristic Johannesburg developed into a cosmopolitan urban environment with various cultures converging in one place.  The result of that was a confluence of otherwise removed cultural influences.

The colonial legacy of both Johannesburg and Cape Town remind us of that history more so in Cape Town where colonial infrastructure engineered to separate still inform how blacks and whites relate.

My work is concerned with some of the tensions that arise out of that history and the memory of the violence imposed on black bodies in the span of Western rule on the continent. The effects of that history extend into the lived experiences of (South) Africans living in either city. Ultimately, South Africa’s past affects the conditions under which people practice and experience culture today.

A entrevista completa, em Another Africa.