INTRODUCTION
Confined Freedom proposes to be a year-long project that promulgates contemporary African diasporic art and performances. It will place thirty-two migrant artistes and their (his)stories in the centre to foster dialogues and interactions between Africans at home and Africans in the diaspora. In the succeeding subheadings, the reason for this project is justified primarily with aid of Thomas Nail’s What are Migrant arts? After which, a proper plan and description of its implementation is provided, its aims and objectives, funding/budget, and expected outcomes.
RATIONALE
The study of memory in cognitive psychology has grown by leaps and bound over the last twenty years, providing scholars with new tools and models from the neural foundations of recollection to the creation and maintenance of autobiographical and historical memories. Historians now also dedicate more time to studying private memories in addition to the inventive use of traditions, official memories, and celebration of monuments. Even anthropologists are beginning to describe their belief in culture as a myriad operation of remembrance and forgetting (Boyer and Wertsch, 2009). This performance project agrees with the prominent understanding of intangible cultural heritage as a tradition ‘inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants’ but emphasizes the role migration and memory play in the passage of this heritage (UNESCO’s ICH: 2003). According to UNESCO’s ICH website, ‘the importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to another’. This performance piece rests on this statement and even reiterates the importance of individual and collective memories and in addition to the wealth of knowledge.
In general, this project will focus on artistic practices by African people who have migrated and/or settled in different parts of Europe, whose artworks respond to their new environment, contributing to a sense of identity and continuity. Rather than create a polarity of the home community and diasporic community, this project provides a space for the diaspora to create, hybridise, and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge they have gathered across several nations. This project does not idolise exceptional, exotic, indigenous or exclusive works, instead, it gives prominence to inclusive, diasporic, and contemporary practices. The UNESCO’s ICH website definition that posits, ‘intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it…”. This explanation puts the individual in the discussion. Therefore, what stories will the artworks or performances of such individuals tell? What role does his memory processes play in his construction of self-identity, shared cultural norms and concepts, and historical awareness?
Many individuals choose what memories to cherish and never forget, they make conscious and unconscious decisions of what practices to (re)create, what stories to tell, artifacts to cherish, and what memories to relay to their children or future generation. Their decisions and reality create a springboard for what their children or future generations call “heritage”. If we agree with this proposition, I believe it is important for heritage sites or museums to capture the contemporary artworks of both home and diasporic communities because it is their artworks, performances, and stories that will serve as a heritage for the future generation.
Diasporic art is used to describe the works of artists who have migrated from one part of the world to another, (or whose families have), and who express their diverse experiences of culture and identity in the work they make, often expressing alternative narratives, and challenging ideas and structures of the established art world (Tate: no date). Nevertheless, migrant arts ‘include arts made by migrants or about migration, or both’ (Nail, 2020: 5). Nail argues that despite the numerous artworks of migrants on cell phones, on canvas, in stories, or assemblies of objects carried on their journeys, and despite the far reach of their artworks through curatorial networks, the internet, and museum circuits, societies still marginalise migrants and exiles to varying degrees along the axes of race, class, and gender (Nail, 2020). One of the prevalent themes in the background of many migrant arts is aesthetic hybridity or ambiguity. Their works are often open to multiple interpretations, and they have been great inventors of new artistic and social forms. ‘The migrant arts are a result of a dialectic between political borders and aesthetic orders’ (Nail, 2020). Despite international borders, Covid-19 movement restrictions, Brexit, travel bans, among others, people keep moving and numerous artworks and stories are being borne. In fact, the more barriers there are, the more differences and aesthetic hybrids multiply under the constraints. The migrant arts can help show us all diverse ways that one can move and how these ways can be experienced differently. They may not always be liberating or joyful, but at least they show us what migration is about in all its complexity and singularity whereas borders, however, do not (Nail: 2020).
DESCRIPTION AND PLAN OF THE PROJECT
This performance series will last for a year and run for seven days in each of the sixteen West African countries. It will be categorized under the generic label of “African diaspora art” which captures ‘modern and contemporary artworks by people of African descent in discussions of African art, most often in connection with “traditional” West African ritual sculpture, installation, and performance’ (Francis, 2013: 405). It will involve thirty-two different artists of African descent that currently reside in the diaspora, two from each West African country.
This project will be divided into three different stages –pre-production, production, and post-production. The Pre-Production stage will last for three months. A camp will be set up anywhere in the world, but preferably somewhere in West Africa for these artists to work in groups, couples, and solos to create a variety of artworks and performances that will be presented for a week, six-eight hours every day. During the Production Stage, artists will spend seven days performing and the other seven days will be used to relax, pack, unpack and move to the next country. Overall, they will spend a month in two countries and eventually, eight months in sixteen countries to complete this stage. The twelfth month which is the Post-Production Stage will be the conclusion of the project, it will include a grand celebration and the saying of goodbyes.
For this project, I will put myself in the position of a project manager with the intention of bringing together these artists, making sure they have a conducive environment to create works, also, I would assist the curators, directors, and producers when required. The pre-production stage will create a space for dialogue between several artists as they creatively work towards telling their own diasporic or migratory stories. The target audience of this project on the one hand are those West African kings, chiefs, politicians, traditionalists, curators, culture bearers, and heritage bearers, on the other hand, are migrants and diasporic African descents across the different age range.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
This project aims to empower migrants and diasporic communities by valuing and celebrating their epistemological construct. This project encourages discussions that help to alleviate doubts about racial and national belonging and propose new organising logic of being. The objectives of this study are as follows:
FUNDING/BUDGET
This is a relatively huge project that would require approximately £1,000,000 to run just its pre-production process and another £4,000,000 to run its production and post-production processes. Therefore, investors and sponsors (political leaders of both diasporic and indigenous communities of these artists, ministers for culture and tourism, stakeholders of selected museums, among others) are needed to complete this project.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
This project is expected to spur the following outcomes:
REFERENCES
Boyer, P and Wertsch, J. (eds.) (2009) Memory in Mind and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Francis, J. (2013) The being and becoming of African diaspora art, Journal of American Studies, 47(14), pp. 405-416. doi:10.1017/S0021875813000091
Nail, T. (2020) What are the Migrant Arts? Available at: https://philosophyofmovementblog.com/2020/12/28/what-are-the-migrant-arts/ (Accessed: 09 April 2021).
Tate Modern (No date) Art term: Diaspora. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/diaspora#:~:text=In%20relation%20to%20art%2C%20the,challenging%20the%20ideas%20and%20structures (Accessed: 10 April 2021).
UNESCO, ICH (2003) What is Intangible Cultural Heritage. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003 (Accessed: 09 April 2021).
Confined Freedom proposes to be a year-long project that promulgates contemporary African diasporic art and performances. It will place thirty-two migrant artistes and their (his)stories in the centre to foster dialogues and interactions between Africans at home and Africans in the diaspora. In the succeeding subheadings, the reason for this project is justified primarily with aid of Thomas Nail’s What are Migrant arts? After which, a proper plan and description of its implementation is provided, its aims and objectives, funding/budget, and expected outcomes.
RATIONALE
The study of memory in cognitive psychology has grown by leaps and bound over the last twenty years, providing scholars with new tools and models from the neural foundations of recollection to the creation and maintenance of autobiographical and historical memories. Historians now also dedicate more time to studying private memories in addition to the inventive use of traditions, official memories, and celebration of monuments. Even anthropologists are beginning to describe their belief in culture as a myriad operation of remembrance and forgetting (Boyer and Wertsch, 2009). This performance project agrees with the prominent understanding of intangible cultural heritage as a tradition ‘inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants’ but emphasizes the role migration and memory play in the passage of this heritage (UNESCO’s ICH: 2003). According to UNESCO’s ICH website, ‘the importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to another’. This performance piece rests on this statement and even reiterates the importance of individual and collective memories and in addition to the wealth of knowledge.
In general, this project will focus on artistic practices by African people who have migrated and/or settled in different parts of Europe, whose artworks respond to their new environment, contributing to a sense of identity and continuity. Rather than create a polarity of the home community and diasporic community, this project provides a space for the diaspora to create, hybridise, and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge they have gathered across several nations. This project does not idolise exceptional, exotic, indigenous or exclusive works, instead, it gives prominence to inclusive, diasporic, and contemporary practices. The UNESCO’s ICH website definition that posits, ‘intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it…”. This explanation puts the individual in the discussion. Therefore, what stories will the artworks or performances of such individuals tell? What role does his memory processes play in his construction of self-identity, shared cultural norms and concepts, and historical awareness?
Many individuals choose what memories to cherish and never forget, they make conscious and unconscious decisions of what practices to (re)create, what stories to tell, artifacts to cherish, and what memories to relay to their children or future generation. Their decisions and reality create a springboard for what their children or future generations call “heritage”. If we agree with this proposition, I believe it is important for heritage sites or museums to capture the contemporary artworks of both home and diasporic communities because it is their artworks, performances, and stories that will serve as a heritage for the future generation.
Diasporic art is used to describe the works of artists who have migrated from one part of the world to another, (or whose families have), and who express their diverse experiences of culture and identity in the work they make, often expressing alternative narratives, and challenging ideas and structures of the established art world (Tate: no date). Nevertheless, migrant arts ‘include arts made by migrants or about migration, or both’ (Nail, 2020: 5). Nail argues that despite the numerous artworks of migrants on cell phones, on canvas, in stories, or assemblies of objects carried on their journeys, and despite the far reach of their artworks through curatorial networks, the internet, and museum circuits, societies still marginalise migrants and exiles to varying degrees along the axes of race, class, and gender (Nail, 2020). One of the prevalent themes in the background of many migrant arts is aesthetic hybridity or ambiguity. Their works are often open to multiple interpretations, and they have been great inventors of new artistic and social forms. ‘The migrant arts are a result of a dialectic between political borders and aesthetic orders’ (Nail, 2020). Despite international borders, Covid-19 movement restrictions, Brexit, travel bans, among others, people keep moving and numerous artworks and stories are being borne. In fact, the more barriers there are, the more differences and aesthetic hybrids multiply under the constraints. The migrant arts can help show us all diverse ways that one can move and how these ways can be experienced differently. They may not always be liberating or joyful, but at least they show us what migration is about in all its complexity and singularity whereas borders, however, do not (Nail: 2020).
DESCRIPTION AND PLAN OF THE PROJECT
This performance series will last for a year and run for seven days in each of the sixteen West African countries. It will be categorized under the generic label of “African diaspora art” which captures ‘modern and contemporary artworks by people of African descent in discussions of African art, most often in connection with “traditional” West African ritual sculpture, installation, and performance’ (Francis, 2013: 405). It will involve thirty-two different artists of African descent that currently reside in the diaspora, two from each West African country.
This project will be divided into three different stages –pre-production, production, and post-production. The Pre-Production stage will last for three months. A camp will be set up anywhere in the world, but preferably somewhere in West Africa for these artists to work in groups, couples, and solos to create a variety of artworks and performances that will be presented for a week, six-eight hours every day. During the Production Stage, artists will spend seven days performing and the other seven days will be used to relax, pack, unpack and move to the next country. Overall, they will spend a month in two countries and eventually, eight months in sixteen countries to complete this stage. The twelfth month which is the Post-Production Stage will be the conclusion of the project, it will include a grand celebration and the saying of goodbyes.
For this project, I will put myself in the position of a project manager with the intention of bringing together these artists, making sure they have a conducive environment to create works, also, I would assist the curators, directors, and producers when required. The pre-production stage will create a space for dialogue between several artists as they creatively work towards telling their own diasporic or migratory stories. The target audience of this project on the one hand are those West African kings, chiefs, politicians, traditionalists, curators, culture bearers, and heritage bearers, on the other hand, are migrants and diasporic African descents across the different age range.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
This project aims to empower migrants and diasporic communities by valuing and celebrating their epistemological construct. This project encourages discussions that help to alleviate doubts about racial and national belonging and propose new organising logic of being. The objectives of this study are as follows:
- To put both indigenous and diasporic communities in the same space and foster dialogues and interactions with the hope of helping the former appreciate diasporic arts and the latter gain more concrete knowledge of their roots.
- To challenge fetishization, romanticization, cultural assimilation, and promote the transformation of political categories.
- To criticize and redefine the political definition of borders and immigration procedures.
- To centralise diasporic and migrant arts.
- To promote the multiplicity of narratives and inclusivity.
- To create a platform for diverse diasporic communities to express themselves.
FUNDING/BUDGET
This is a relatively huge project that would require approximately £1,000,000 to run just its pre-production process and another £4,000,000 to run its production and post-production processes. Therefore, investors and sponsors (political leaders of both diasporic and indigenous communities of these artists, ministers for culture and tourism, stakeholders of selected museums, among others) are needed to complete this project.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
This project is expected to spur the following outcomes:
- A better bond between indigenous and diasporic communities.
- A redefinition of political borders and barriers.
- Empowerment of diasporic communities.
- Discussions on the inclusivity of migrants in whatever community they emigrate to.
- More research and studies on migrant and African diasporic arts.
- The attraction of more investors that will help promote further exhibitions and performances of black migrant arts.
REFERENCES
Boyer, P and Wertsch, J. (eds.) (2009) Memory in Mind and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Francis, J. (2013) The being and becoming of African diaspora art, Journal of American Studies, 47(14), pp. 405-416. doi:10.1017/S0021875813000091
Nail, T. (2020) What are the Migrant Arts? Available at: https://philosophyofmovementblog.com/2020/12/28/what-are-the-migrant-arts/ (Accessed: 09 April 2021).
Tate Modern (No date) Art term: Diaspora. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/diaspora#:~:text=In%20relation%20to%20art%2C%20the,challenging%20the%20ideas%20and%20structures (Accessed: 10 April 2021).
UNESCO, ICH (2003) What is Intangible Cultural Heritage. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003 (Accessed: 09 April 2021).