Yaadikone & Rue Jules Ferry 17, 2017-18

Rue Jules Ferry 17

HD Video, color, sound, 13.40 min
Performance: Issa Samb
Camera, sound, editing: Antje Majewski
Sound corrections: Christian Obermaier

We are at Laboratoire AGIT’ART, 17 de la Rue JULES FERRY, Dakar in 2017, a memorial site for creation and for defining strategies for the Living—established 47 years ago. This site attested to the many solutions found to help prepare, enlarge, help, guide and foster humans and their environments. Having often been at the origin of the creation of workshops, foundations and demonstrations, this site has ever given rise to and guided careers without receiving any advantage. AGIT’ART has kept the spirit of the ancestors, which means respect for nature and the equitable sharing of—unfortunately not inexhaustible—resources. (Text: Abdoulaye Ba)

Nous sommes au Laboratoire AGIT’ART, 17 de la Rue JULES FERRY à Dakar en 2017, un lieu de mémoire, de création et de définition de stratégies pour le Vivant, créé il y
a 47 ans maintenant. Ce lieu témoin ou bon nombre de solutions ont été trouvées pour défricher, élargir, aider, guider et promouvoir l’homme et son environnement. Très souvent á l’origine de la création d’ateliers, de fondations, et de manifestations, ce lieu a suscité et orienté des carrières depuis toujours sans recevoir d’avantage.
AGIT ART est resté dans l’esprit des ancêtres qui signifie le respect de la nature et le partage équitable des ressources malheureusement pas inépuisable. (Text: Abdoulaye Ba)

Yaadikone

HD video, color, sound, 10:57 min
Director, filming, sound and editing: Antje Majewski
With: Issa Samb, Ican Ramageli, Bara Diokhane, Alassane Samb, Antje Majewski, Babacar Top

The experimental video artwork Yaadikone, filmed in 2016, starts in the courtyard Rue Jules Ferry 17. On Issa Samb’s request, Ican Ramageli placed a shell with a natural drawing on top of a stone, layed out some coins, and poured water over it. Antje Majewski’s video is an attempt to decipher this abstract ritual and unfold it in time and memory. Her video takes us to the home of the filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty on the Île de Ngor.
We encounter the bull’s scull that is an important actor in the film Touki Bouki (1973) by Mambéty, now part of an installation by Issa Samb; dead and living shells; trees and birds; an elephant; and heavy stones carried on the head of some of the “petites gens” that Mambéty loved and made the subject and actors of his films. He died too early to create his last film, La tailleuse de pierre (The Stone Cutter). The scene of young men carrying large stones for construction that Antje Majewski filmed in front of his house pays homage to this imaginary work. The title of the film, Yaadikone, refers to the name of Issa Samb’s and Mambéty’s association for children and nature. The video ends with images of the dancer Babacar Top activating Issa Samb’s installation by turning into a bull that communicates with a child.