Day #56, 20 October 2018, Lusaka, Zambia. “In Zambia we took a new route for our artistic collaborations, unlike last two countries where artists from one medium were collaborating with each other, we had cross-media collaborations. It was a great collaborative process as we narrowed down our thoughts into one word each person, describing the feeling we get when we think about inequality, from our life experiences. My group started working on our individual ideas of the artwork that we need to create. The initial process was to use our field of expertise to an artform that would reflect our thoughts, the only way to make it all come together for our team was to build a performance art piece. We soon realized that it would not be a true collaboration if we artists don’t venture out into other artistsic domains and have more interactive collaborations. On day one we decided to go with an undercurrent of “Boxed”, one of the words that came out of the discussion – and Sibongile’s chosen word became the glue that would bind our narrative together. The next day was more brainstorming on how we want our side of the “box” be represented, we started thinking in terms of what each person’s word will represent: Dwaine’s word “Speak” fit perfectly with his artistic practice, and we came up with the idea of using empty spray cans as sound instruments, attaching them to the side of the box and use graffiti and sound together to create performance art. Sibongile worked on the narrative of being “boxed” by gender and the politics around it, Gingré’s poem – called “Otherness” worked as a common word-sound for the performance including each performers words. Gala’s saxophone and side of the box depicted anger and her music depicted the same, focussing on the feeling and how music has helped her in overcoming the feeling of anger when faced with inequality. Sydney’s performance focused on disability and how that triggers inequality in society, using his circus performances as a mode of expression. Alley joined in the next day with her base guitar adding life to the performance with the sounds that resonate with the moods of each performance. Shikhant’s side of the box depicting the feeling of being “inferior” – was painted blue and his idea was to let the art on the box be controlled by the other artists, his body acting as a mere instrument and his painting being the result of the pressures from the society. Each artist expanded into other artforms so the showcase also acted like an empowering tool for many artists as they pushed their boundaries and moved away from their comfort zones. Within four days the team was able to create the beautiful performance art and was able to stir conversations within the community.” – Shikhant Sablania ———- The Great African Caravan is an #International artistic project working with local organisations in 12 African countries for 200 days with the aim to connect change makers and take creative actions towards the Global Goals. The team is in #Zambia now, collaborating with Circus Zambia. Here’s how you can join in and support us: http://bit.ly/greatafricancaravan #SDGsCaravan #BeyondBorders #UnitedNations2030 #Agenda2030 #unborder #capetocairo
