“Arte Assinada no Feminino” at MUSART
MFF 2019 Film Cycle: The Sound Of Masks by Sara Gouveia
2:15 CAT | 10 October 2019
MFF 2019 Film Cycle: The Sound Of Masks by Sara Gouveia
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 16 2019 at 19h00
Address: Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano, Av. Samora Machel no. 468, Maputo
About the event
Atanásio Nyusi, an engaging storyteller and legendary Mapiko dancer, takes us on a surreal journey that intertwines the politics of Mozambique's colonial past and present. Using music, dance and the body as an archive, we experience the ugliness of war through the beauty of dance and poetry. During the time the Portuguese ruled, the Mapiko was often used as a social intervention in opposition to colonisation. The 10 years of War for Independence against the Portuguese made this dance stop for a few years.
The Mapiko dance, however, resurfaced after the end of the civil war following the country's independence. Today, it celebrates freedom, cultural identity and collective memory. As Atanásio himself says, “dance is linked to domination, and therefore to history, war and culture are intertwined. They are inseparable. Through his work, Atanásio played an important role in promoting Mapiko as a contemporary art form. As an artist, but also as a guardian of memory, he now faces the challenge of passing on his knowledge to his son Natepo.
Mixing observational images, archival material and contemporary dance sequences, the film crosses the threshold between the real and the imaginary. These two worlds of parallel stories intertwine creating a visual narrative linking past and present in a radically changing country.
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