The Drummers and Their Drumbeats: Mohamed Sleiman Labat скачать в хорошем качестве

The Drummers and Their Drumbeats: Mohamed Sleiman Labat

Mohamed Sleiman Labat is a Sahrawi visual artist and writer based in Algeria. He is the founder of Motif Art Studio in Samara refugee camp near Tindouf in the Hamda desert. Established in 2017, the studio is where the artist experiments with discarded materials found in the camp to make meaningful visual pieces as well as facilitates cross-generational learning through the arts, particularly focusing on the preservation of traditional storytelling and oral history. It is now a hub for artistic practice in the remote desert, whilst serving as a space for Saharawi youth to gain skills and explore their creative potential. Labat has recently begun working on PhosFATE in collaboration with Pekka Niskanen, a project based on the damages done by phosphate (as a substance, industry and political force) to link the Baltic and Sahara regions. Labat uses photography and other media to document the oral and nomadic cultures of the peoples of the Western Sahara as well as the new narratives and developments of the generations born and raised in the camp since the discovery of phosphate in the 1970s and resulting land clashes with Morocco. __ Culturescapes 2023 Sahara picks up from the Amazonian edition of the festival and introduces some of participating artists with their video portraits done by Anita Afonu, an award-winning Ghanaian documentary film director. In 2023, the three themes—borders, resilience, and futures—that structure the narrative of the festival program can be experienced through the stories of the invited artists. This series of video portraits, The Drummers and Their Drumbeats, enable a broader understanding of the socio-political and cultural context of the Saharan region. Each portrait allows a look behind the scenes into the artists' real life beyond the black box, the white cube, or the concert venue. Artists reveal essential inspirations for their practices and discuss critical questions of our time that influx their work. Anita Afonu has over a decade of experience directing and producing films exploring the hidden histories and everyday lives of people in West Africa. She belongs to a new generation of African artists who are creatively reckoning with their nations’ pasts to understand the present political and social realities. __ For more information on Culturescapes, visit www.culturescapes.ch.