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BE.BOP is a traveling project, with presentations and screenings all over the world. Is this a crucial component of the project? There is a need to readdress how the Black body is codi?ed outside of Europe as well. This project is a way to translate diasporic knowledge, from di?erent diasporas, and to present mechanisms of invisibilization of those stories, that are little known. Personally, I was ignorant about them so I am basically sharing what has created a paradigm shift in my own understanding of Black history.
curatorial approach was to present work highlighting issues of Blackness and crucial legacies such as the Haitian Revolution. I am making connections between di?erent struggles of liberation of Black people in di?erent moments of our histories. It was an ambitious screening program this year, and I am deeply thankful for the support of Eric Van Grasdor? of AfricAvenir and of course the Hackesche Höfe Kino. For this edition, it is the ?rst time that BE.BOP also included performances. How do you feel about it? Very proud, very happy. It is kind of hypocritical to talk
In addition, I have been involved in video-art for a while, and for me it is the perfect medium to convey a lot of things fast. This is why screenings are useful and through ?lms, I can engage an audience and explain faster, synthesize the complexity of what is going on with Afrophobia, racism against Black people in Europe. The situation is alarming and terrible and I hope my work contributes to create some understanding and awareness on the urgency of discussing this issue. We should not let it be trivialized as some occasional, anecdotic things that happen (as the last news in France or Sweden). The policy of Frontex, and the permanent racialization of Afropean citizens (everybody that is Black has to be always visible and constantly asked for her/his papers) is absurd. Just an example: there is a European policy to bring artists from outside of Europe to Europe, but it is increasingly di?cult as people have no idea of what it takes to organize the visa for someone outside of Europe. Those that never invite people to visit Europe have no idea what it means to bring people from outside.
about the Black body at a theatre space and not to present Black artists on the stage. I am happy that thanks to the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, and the new codirector ? Wagner Carvalho ? with this partnership, the artists had full support to do their work here. It is a huge step forward. The artists are thrilled to do it and it brings an enormous contribution of having the narrative of performance, which is what I love about it: not only matters what happens in the moment and the physicality of it, but also what stays afterwards, the memory that remains, the dialogues created. It is also important because I have made a point of having the artists get into an interaction with the public immediately after the performance, which can be extremely challenging. So it is a great step forward, and it is the ?rst time that an Afropean festival of performance is done in Europe, and specially here at the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse which is an iconic space in terms of new theatre in Berlin and Germany and also in Europe already only ?ve years after being re-opened by Shermin Langho?. You have talked about the transformative and
Let s address the curatorial aspects of the festival. Well, some of the works I had already seen years ago, like the movie Cuba. An African Odyssey by Jihan El Thari or Rethoric that Preaches Revolution by Adler Guerrier that I saw for the ?rst time at the Whitney Biennial (2008). Others are more recent. I am putting in dialogue works strictly related to the issue of Black Power legacies with works that are not necessarily related to that, and are made by African and Caribbean diaspora everywhere. One of the aspects of my
liberating qualities of performance art... Yes. There are things that can only be conveyed with the physicality of the body, through its presence. Such an ephemeral form of art as performance is so precious, through the immediacy of the moment. It is very expensive to do, but it will become pro?table ? let me stay positive! You just need a lot of people to make it happen, but it is worth it. It moves people s perceptions and sensations.
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Volume 5: July - September 2013