Euridice Zaituna Kala
Euridice Zaituna Kala, Rendition—A moment in between 33 years of Protest (2023–24), video still. Courtesy of the artist
Euridice Zaituna Kala’s artistic work emerges from an in depth deconstruction, manipulation, and reconstruction of cultural and historical metamorphoses. Through a series of artistic research and creations, Kala has developed a strong approach to deal with long histories of erasure and silencing experienced by many communities from Mozambique, the African continent, and beyond. I, The Archive (2020–) offers reflections around material archives, their origin, existence, and absence. By centring the human as an archive, Kala looks into living memories to fill the gaps left by and through hegemonic historiography. For the exhibition, Kala explores the role and effect of movement and performativity in the so-called madgermanes (Mozambican workers brought to the German Democratic Republic, GDR) collective body that protests every Wednesday on the streets of Maputo. Rendition—A moment in between 33 years of protest (2023) is a newly commissioned multimedia work approached as a cartography of ongoing histories of oppression, protests, marches, songs, disappointments, nostalgia, Ostalgie (romanticized nostalgia for the GDR), and what the artist refers to as ‘double nature-double identity’. While looking at how formerly colonized physical spaces can go through cycles of liberation and recolonization, Kala is also interested in the metamorphoses of Maputo’s landscapes with the return of Mozambicans after a decade of absence and personal transformation in the GDR. In the work, Jardim dos Madgermanes, a public space turned political space, becomes a platform for self-representation and memory activation. In collaboration with artist, dancer, and choreographer Pak Ndjamena, the work is activated in a performance that unfolds protest as ritual.
Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Euridice Zaituna Kala and HKW, 2023–24.
Work in the exhibition: Rendition—A moment in between 33 years of protest or Untitled (2023-24), 2-channel-video. Courtesy of the artist