Online
LADA is delighted to present this online screening of A Declaration of Independence, a film documenting the first iteration of this work in June 2018 at LADA, performed by Selina Rose, Paula Pinho Martins Nacif, Chloe Filani, Marwa Belghazi, Buki Bayode, Foluke Taylor, and Aisha Mohammed.
This film will be available to watch online until Wednesday 25th November.
Barby Asante’s A Declaration of Independence is an ongoing performance/forum bringing together Black and of colour womxn to reflect on how the political affects the personal and how the social, cultural implications of historic declarations, policies and legislations Impact on their everyday lives.
The starting point of A Declaration of Independence is Ama Ata Aidoo’s poem As Always a Painful Declaration of Independence, from her 1992 collection An Angry Letter in January, that declares independence not only from a colonial ruler but also self-determined gendered and racial independence.
Asante says that the ongoing A Declaration of Independence project brings together groups of womxn of colour to “to consider our interdependencies and what the possibilities are for collective actions for the future and to rethink our understanding of monumental moments in world history such as declarations of independence.” Through dialogue and writing, performative declarations are created that reveal stories, dreams, forgotten histories to articulate and imagine strategies and possibilities in a collective ritual of declaration.
Barby is inviting womxn of colour to create an iteration of A Declaration of Independence as part of the Brent Biennial 2020. See here for details of how to get involved
Barby Asante is a London based artist, curator, educator and occasional DJ. Her work is concerned with the politics of place, space memory and the histories and legacies of colonialism. Asante’s work is collaborative, performative and dialogic, often working with groups of people as contributors, collaborators or co researchers. Her artistic practice explores the archival, makes propositions, collects and maps stories and contributions of people of colour using storytelling, collective actions, and ritual, to excavate, unearth and interrogate given narratives, Asante’s work considers migration, safe spaces to gather in cities antagonistic to ones presence and how one maps the self as a contributor to narratives of society, culture and politics. Asante see’s these propositions maps, stories, collections and narratives as interruptions, utterances, presences that exist within the dominant cultural archive. By making these narratives and stories visible, asking questions and making proposals that disrupt this dominance she is interested in what these possibilities offer as we examine our present and envision our futures.
LADA Screens is a series of free, online screenings of seminal performance documentation, works to camera, short films/video and archival footage. It is part of Live Online, LADA’s dedicated space where you can watch short videos and films drawn from LADA’s Study Room or generated through our programmes and initiatives.
Each screening will be available to view for a limited time only, and will be launched with a live event at our space in Bethnal Green, London.
LADA Screens is curated by the Live Art Development Agency (LADA). LADA is a ‘Centre for Live Art’: a knowledge centre, a production centre for programmes and publications, a research centre setting artists and ideas in motion, and an online centre for digital experimentation, representation and dissemination.
Banner image credit:
A Declaration of Independence, Barby Asante
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