photo: Egle Oddo 2013
25 : 250 Uprooted Fake Nations, Helsinki 2013
Live performance | September 2013 | Uprooted curated by Willem Willhelmus
25 : 250 or Elephants Walking Over Water
a performance about modern ritual crimes in Gabon
in association with Suomenlinna Augustinna Gallery
Helsinki | Finland
Duration: 3 hours
Materials:
250 x plastic 10cl transparent cups, water, plinth
Description of action: I am standing in the space progressively drinking cups of 10cl of water. There are over 25 litres to drink, 250 cups which amounts to the number of people killed in Gabon for ritual crimes in the river Goue. progressively I start to urinate into the cups. After I drink 5 litres of water the audience start to join in the action and drink together with me. Some also contribute and urinate into the empty cups. Once all the cups are empty, I gather the urine together.
Documentation Film: Tomasz Szrama & Marcio Carvalho
Photography: copyright Egle Oddo & courtesy of Uprooted Fake Nations & Augustinna Galleria Suomenlinna, Helsinki
25 : 250 or Elephants Walking Over Water
a performance about modern ritual crimes in Gabon
in association with Suomenlinna Augustinna Gallery
Helsinki | Finland
Duration: 3 hours
Materials:
250 x plastic 10cl transparent cups, water, plinth
Description of action: I am standing in the space progressively drinking cups of 10cl of water. There are over 25 litres to drink, 250 cups which amounts to the number of people killed in Gabon for ritual crimes in the river Goue. progressively I start to urinate into the cups. After I drink 5 litres of water the audience start to join in the action and drink together with me. Some also contribute and urinate into the empty cups. Once all the cups are empty, I gather the urine together.
Documentation Film: Tomasz Szrama & Marcio Carvalho
Photography: copyright Egle Oddo & courtesy of Uprooted Fake Nations & Augustinna Galleria Suomenlinna, Helsinki
photos: copyright Egle Oddo
Uprooted | Anguezomo Mba Bikoro from Bikoro on Vimeo.
Concept
Developed from a true story, the action explores the social tensions within communities between traditions and modernities not their own and highlights the increasing problem of ritual crimes in the Omboue region in the river Goue in central Gabon. Every cup of water represents the number of people killed in the region per year. 25cl of water is the amount of water the body looses during extreme danger.
However the fundamental narrative of the action passes beyond the mere representation of a lived memory. The action triggers a gathering, a discussion between the participants present. It becomes the communal support to one single human being, helping the artist's task and take them out of danger (water drowning). With the performer, the participants join in, drink the water and in their turn pee in the small cups also. The performer's pee is sampled a the clinic on a weekly basis, testing for the evolution of her pregnancy. Testing for gender, percentage of minerals, viruses. What the body pushes out reads a story, the value of life, the flesh into water.
However the fundamental narrative of the action passes beyond the mere representation of a lived memory. The action triggers a gathering, a discussion between the participants present. It becomes the communal support to one single human being, helping the artist's task and take them out of danger (water drowning). With the performer, the participants join in, drink the water and in their turn pee in the small cups also. The performer's pee is sampled a the clinic on a weekly basis, testing for the evolution of her pregnancy. Testing for gender, percentage of minerals, viruses. What the body pushes out reads a story, the value of life, the flesh into water.