[rohrpost] D I R E C T I O N S - Iwalewa-Haus, Bayreuth, 31.01.2011

wolfgang spahn post at wolfgang-spahn.de
Don Jan 31 12:44:06 CET 2013


Invitation:

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D I R E C T I O N S
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by Wolfgang Spahn
media installation based on a poem of Chirikure Chirikure
Feat. Mando the Beatboxer

withspoken word performance:
Chirikure Chirkure & ChloroPhil
Philipp Kabo Köpsel
Phillippa Yaa de Villies

opening: 31.01.2013 - 19:00

Iwalewa-Haus, Universität Bayreuth
Münzgasse 9, Bayreuth

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„Directions“ by Wolfgang Spahn is a media installation based on
the homonymous poem by famous Zimbabwean poet Chirikure Chirikure.

In the video he himself performs alongside Mando the beatboxer who
has earned himself the title of „Deutscher Beatbox-Meister“ twice.
The setting contains of a chemical lab which emittes vapour,
fountains and smoke. The director and media artist Wolfgang Spahn
created projections which are generated by sound. Thus performance,
beats and projections are forming a thrilling mélange.

The poem uses the idea of directions to highlight how certain
political instructions create absurd effects on everyday life or
may even force the human body to give in. Thus the poem can be read
as a comment on the „Look East“ policy by Robert Mugabe, which was
initiated in 2003 to orientate Zimbabwe towards Asia. But it also
uses the metaphor of directions to refer to the (post-)colonial
education system, which forced african pupils to adopt the western
style of writing from left to right.

The installation not only captures this idea but also adds the
dimension of globalization and brain drain. By using the laboratory
as a metaphor for experiment and creation it refers to the shared
experience of the involved artists and staff: none of them
currently stays at their country of origin.

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http://www.iwalewa.uni-bayreuth.de/en/index.html
http://wolfgang-spahn.de/
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