During the opening evening of A SACRED STORY AT THE TREE OF LIFE on Thursday 14 September, 19:00, a Pungwe will take place with Live Music, Performances and DJ-Sets by Malik Ntone Edjabe aka Hypocrite, Eric Vaughn, Eiliyas, Listening at Pungwe, Nikola Hartl & Jumoke Adeyanju.
Main Acts
Genesis: The Creative Principle
“In the garden of Eden, there were two important trees, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. While it is commonly understood that Adam and Eve were expelled from the terrestrial paradise because they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Fall of Man is more precisely related to fears on the part of the demiurge that they would subsequently eat from the Tree of Life, which would give them eternal life… Now, eternity is not a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. It is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it, and if you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere else.” – Hanock Campbell
Featuring Hypcorite (microphone) and Eric Vaughn (drums), ‘Genesis: The Creative Principle’ is a performance-lecture about the psychological and cultural function of mythology, old and new. It forms part of a larger series of post-disciplinary interventions entitled ‘Hypocrisy Sessions’. The series seeks to bring to life the core philosophical principles underpinning ‘Changing same: An ontology of spirit’, an ongoing research engagement concerned with the a nature of reality.
A SACRED STORY AT THE TREE OF LIFE takes the form of an ephemeral installation centred on the signification of landscape and space through processes of memory and ceremony. The shade of the baobab, the sacred tree, is the gathering place for a communion with poets, rioters, storytellers, vocalists, players of instruments, and DJs.
Over a period of six weeks the gallery transforms into a portal for the platform, Listening at Pungwe. Pungwe is an occasion where sound system culture is approached as a mo(nu)ment of auditory, corporeal and sociocultural frequencies. The platform traces spatiality through a complex web of movements that are often embodied and transferred through sound.
Between 14 and 17 September, Listening at Pungwe will open the space with a Pungwe, host Poetry Meets with Jumoke Adeyanju, and a collage workshop by Duduetsang Lamola. Followed by more events in October and a finissage on Saturday 21 October 2023.
Listening at Pungwe, a collaborative project by Memory Biwa and Robert Machiri, pivots on circulatory aural imaginings and practices in southern Africa, to produce publics and alternative spaces of sociality.
With: Listening at Pungwe, Jumoke Adeyanju, blk banaana, Malik Ntone Edjabe aka Hypocrite, Eric Vaughn, Banji Chona, Percy Zvomuya, Eiliyas, Nikola Hartl, Zen Marie, Elsa M’Bala, Melanelle B. C. Hémêfa, Day Eve aka audioslut, Savanna Morgan.
Curatorial Ensemble: Memory Biwa, Robert Machiri, Jumoke Adeyanju, Nikola Hartl
Sound System: John Broback
* The title echoes Sanusi Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa’s Chapter, The Sacred Story of the Tree of Life, in Indaba My Children: African Tribal History, Legends, Customs and Religious Beliefs, Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh, 1998, first published in 1964.
