The Economy of Presence

Concept by Masimba Hwati & Mihret Kebede

The act of reading a foreign language out loud to an audience who can not understand it might sound ridiculous but is a form of refusal and resistance. Further exotifying a foreign language or presence is a stereotype /cliche that needs to be troubled with such artistic mediation. This performative intervention reclaims a space where knowledge is often circulated with advanced languages and texts that often utilize technological advancements to disseminate certain ideologies and world views. In this case, a cliche can be a sword of resistance for others in a process of self-care. In the process of a desired political change, every revolution starts in/with/around/above and below silence. ''Silence is not a void space’’ rather has an agency that enables communication. In this intervention what is about to happen has already happened. Refusal is self-preservation, economizing one’s sound and word can be a product of fear but can also produce fear. The theme is complex, and it is not a matter of either/or, neither/nor, but rather a specific position of refusal, a refusal to be read, to be intelligible to be, categorized. This performance aims to invite and inspire the audience to think of silence as an alternative form of resistance. Silence is not an absence of speech act, it is a presence and authenticity. The perpetual stereotype and cliche are that oppressed people will be angry and will speak out, this cliche trap of words and strategy. Zora Neal Hurston once said "The white man is always trying to get into somebody else's business. All right, I'll set something outside the door of my mind for him to play with and handle. He can read my writing but he sho' can't read my mind. I'll put this play toy in his hand, and he will seize it and go away. Then I'll say my say and sing my song."

Masimba Hwati was born in Harare, two years following the second chimurenga against the British crown. Talk about sonic envelopes, In that year Juluka released ‘Scatterlings of Africa’ a hit song inspiring phantasms of exotic gaze(s) against a backdrop of a brutal Apartheid system in South Africa. In this year also, Toto released the song Africa. This is also the year Michael Jackson released the song Human nature and Bhundu boys released the single Uneshuwa here? Later that year going into the next, The new Zimbabwean Government unleashed ‘Gukurahundi’ The ethnic cleansing genocide on the southern part of the country. Masimba’s work is preoccupied with sound, listening, micro-politics, resistance and negotiation. He’s created projects in Harare, Detroit, Johannesburg, Capetown, Blackburn, UK,Vienna,Weimar, South Carolina, Leeds UK and Nova Scotia.
More information: @masimbahwati

Mihret Kebede is a multi-disciplinary artist and poet, a co-founder of Tobiya poetic Jazz, Netsa Art village artists collective, and Addis video art festival. She graduated from Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts and Design in painting with distinction in 2007 and has earned her MA in arts from the same school in 2016. She has received a certificate award of recognition in 2013 from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ethiopia. Mihret has participated in several local and international art exhibitions, workshops, poetry performances, art residencies, and collaborative art projects. Beyond her artistic practices, she is known for organizing local and international art events and festivals. Her poems and essays are included in the Wax and Gold: Poetry Jazz book Published by Institut für Raumexperimente/Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin and Tobiya Poetic Jazz, Addis Ababa. Her poems are featured in several publications including Washington square review Journal and the first-ever anthology of Ethiopian Amharic poetry in English, Songs We Learn from Trees ,Carcanet Press. Mihret is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of fine arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien).
More information: linktr.ee/mihretkebede

This performance will be musically accompanied by Whitney Akpetsi & Princess ESOHE.

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The entrance fees benefit the artists, who are paid according to the Fair Pay Scheme.

Cash only payment at this event! Limited number of seats. Admission: 7.30 pm, start 8 pm