Dambudzo

In this sculpture-cum-sound installation complemented by live movement performance, multidisciplinary artist nora chipaumire animates the resonances of the word ‘Dambudzo’, creating a radical, participatory space of decolonised possibility. A Shona word that translates as ‘trouble’, ‘Dambudzo’ evokes the ideas of radical African thinkers like Dambudzo Marechera, Steve Biko and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o that intersect with chipaumire's own thoughts and lived experiences as well as current political reality and leadership in Africa and the "trouble" required to resist colonial and neocolonial control in the past and present. In a structure built to resemble an informal bar hosted in a private home where tenants and locals gather to drink and talk revolution, and to the sounds of Jit music, chipaumire and her tribe of artists will bring to life the promises and betrayals entailed in the dream of freedom. In this convergence of music, sound, site and space, they ask audiences to actively co-conspire in order to envision new possible worlds.
 

Concept, Creative Direction: nora chipaumire 
With nora chipaumire, McIntosh "SoKo" Jerahuni (Mbira), Tatenda Chabarwa (Mbira), Tyrone Isaac-Stuart, Shamar Wayne Watt, Beauty Katiji, Fatima Katiji, Jonathan Kudakwashe Daniel 
Recorded music: Bhundu Boys 
Sound design: Franz Schütte 
 

Dambudzo takes place in cooperation with Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien accompanying the exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation. Zeitgenössische Kunst und dekoloniale Moderne.