i Viva Villa ! Festival

31th october 2019

SPEAKER: SEYDOU CISSÉ

This meeting will be the opportunity for Seydou Cissé, member of the Casa de Velázquez, to evoke, from his work Ladjoni (Purification), his creative process, which mixes documentary approach, plastic and video arts, in order to exchange more fully on a theme that runs through its entire journey: the links between traditions and new technologies.

The installation LADJONI is a derivative of the film project Taamaden (Traveler) on West African immigrants in Valencia (Spain), in which Seydou Cissé deals with both their daily life and their relationship to occult science, via rituals and practices animists before, during and after their trip.

Before migrating, some go to see the soothsayer, the charlatan or the marabout to predict their journey and offer them sacrifices and rituals of protection.

LADJONI means “to purify oneself spiritually”.

The piece is inspired by the costume of the “Donso”, hunters and traditional healers of Malian traditional society. On this costume are woven “gris-gris”.

The installation consists of a multitude of fine rectangular shapes, covered with straw. Visually, these layers of straw are reminiscent of brush strokes on a canvas of paint. The boards are linked to each other through nylon threads, the whole forms a hanging carpet, made of straw smartphones. The artist draws a parallel between smartphones and grigris, mobile devices indeed become real modern amulets in the hands of those who have crossed the sea.

A dance video inspired by sacrificial rituals is projected on the screen. The dancer manipulates pigments mixed with soil to coat the body. She then performs these ritual dance steps. The images are combined with those of other rites and divinations collected between Mali and Spain.

The quadrophonic sound merges the testimonies of immigrants, the incantations of spiritual masters, the sound of water, sea, wind, fire …

* The end of the Forests is a title borrowed from the next 2020 creation by choreographer Benjamin Bertrand, winner of the Villa Kujoyama

Information

Price of Thursdays: 5 €
Reduced rate: 2 € (Friends, subscribers, job seekers, teachers)
Free for students

Booking
reservation@collectionlambert.com
Within the limit of available seats