Marilú Mapengo Námoda | Research Trip

November 2020 — Dance

Mozambican performance artist and activist Marilú Mapengo Námoda will spend the month of November at Kaserne Basel, Switzerland, carrying out research, meeting with other artists and developing work with local partners.

The focus of the research trip is the continuation of a collaboration with Swiss choreographer and dancer Teresa Vittucci that started last year at KINANI Festival in Maputo, Mozambique, where Teresa was supported by our office to present her provocative piece ALL EYES ON . The two artists share a common interest in critical feminist practice and interrogating gender and body politics in the contemporary context. Their collaboration began as a site-specific work in the one-day Quatro Andar programme within the KINANI festival. Emergencies (work in progress), is a performative act that stands for the urgency of small actions when we feel powerless living under structural oppressive systems. Marilú and Teresa will present a work-in-progress of this collaboration on 14 November 2020 at Probebühne Klara.

Marilú is a self-taught artist and has been a vocal feminist activist for over a decade in Maputo, Mozambique. She understands art as a decolonial, feminist and political tool that enables an ongoing healing process for both the body and mind. In her latest work, she creates radical counter-concepts to the ruling hegemonic power. Marilú says that this research trip will provide the “opportunity to strengthen my practice through research and experimentation. I believe the interaction with artists from different contexts would be a great opportunity to expand my reflections.” During her time in Basel, Marilú will participate in a dense schedule of different activities related to a programmatic focus on feminism at Kaserne Basel and meet other artists and cultural professionals with the aim of broadening and deepening her professional network.

Stills from Memórias de uma língua de cão, an audio-visual installation inspired by my childhood memories that marks the relationship I have established with my indigenous language – Chuwabo. A body in protest against the present omnipresence of the colonial project in our societies.

Águas de Março is an conceptual short. Using my body and everyday objects, I explore violence as a broad subject that crosses our time and particularly our relationship with nature (bodies and territories).