LEMOHANG JEREMIAH MOSESE
ANCESTRAL VISIONS OF THE FUTURE / PAGEANTRY OF WAI
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese creates mystical images which oscillate between the personal and the universal, combining post-colonial landscapes with Basotho traditions of dance and storytelling. In his first stage work “Ancestral Visions of the Future/Pageantry of Wailing”, developed specifically for Performing Exiles, the internationally renowned filmmaker interrogates and seeks individual and collective identities of a Pan-African community: What are African self-images and a collective African consciousness beyond slavery and colonialism? How can they be manifested physically? And what could “Ubuntu”, the African philosophy of freedom and connectedness in communities, look like in the global African diaspora? The artist is interested in emotions of vulnerability, pain and wailing that go hand in hand with the process of rebirth, of becoming, of reshaping identity. Together with a cast of performers and dancers, Mosese will develop atmospheric and fragmented images from the shards of a splintered past, present and future in order to outline a vision of African consciousness.
Prior to Friday’s screening, the film “Mother, I am suffocating. This is my last film about you.” by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese. After the showing on Saturday there will be an artist talk.
Director, Text, Video: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese. Soprano: Sarai Cole. Performance: Kelvin Kilonzo, Mmakgosi Kgabi, Maïmouna Coulibaly. Dramaturgy: Anan Fries. Assistant Directing and Production: Patrick Kohn.
A Berliner Festspiele/„Performing Exiles“ production, 2023. Co-production FFT: Düsseldorf. Supported as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.