We're Magic. We're Real #3 (These Walls),long durational performance (2021-ongoing)

The complete series of works uses hair as an important marker of identity within the African diaspora— a simple, yet powerful gesture. Performers with African roots are connected to the facade of colonial buildings through long cornrows, as if the braids were growing directly out of the building’s walls. The hair blends with the facade’s climbing plants, creating a poetic metaphor for the relationship between culture, nature, body and landscape, history and the present. To the sound of the Atlantic Ocean’s roar, the performers move slowly back and forth across the square in front of the building, in a repetitive flow— like the sea— while the long braids form wave-like patterns that simultaneously resemble ship ropes, evoking thoughts of the rigging of slave ships.

Silent, yet insistent, the performers draw attention of passersby through their repeated utterances of an African proverb, spoken in various languages. Equal parts sorrow and strength are present in the meditative performance, which expresses a longing for life beyond the plantation system— and for the forest as both literal and symbolic space(s) for freedom.

The performance was first commissioned by

Mads Nørgaard

2021