PRESENT TENSE SERIES III: Nathalie Mba Bikoro - Pietà; The Hammer, Mother & Child

On Wednesday, March 26, within the frame of Present Tense Series, Nathalie Mba Bikoro will present the second part of the performance installation “Pietà; The Hammer, Mother & Child”. Pietà thematizes the concepts of resurrection and celebration of life and death. It investigates the significance of hammer as a tool of protest, love and trade, throughout its history to Michelangelo’s “Pietà”. This performance piece creates a symbolic link to Berlin’s political and social history, weaving poetry about the strength of humanity beyond the cultures. Wednesday, March 26, 2014, 7 pm Curator: Chiara Cartuccia SAVVY Contemporary Richardstr.20 12043 Berlin-Neukölln Nathalie Mba Bikoro (b. 1985 in Libreville, Gabon) is an interdisciplinary artist, whose artwork aims to bring together communities by collecting fractured narratives for the sake of social change through identity, memory, dialogue, history and multilingualism. Her personal experiences facilitated her sensibility to cross-interculturalism and languages, which she explores to deconstruct and re-construct mythologies of both past and present. In her artistic practice the narratives examine the eternal returns of historical and visual stereotypes throughout art history, and the ways they influence current societies and interactions. The ultimate purpose is not to resolve the colonial contexts, but rather expose fragile nuances of the political, in order to foster the legacy of celebrating the multiplicity of voices and cultural identities, as well as challenging conceptions of origin, authenticity and ritual. Bikoro has participated in numerous international exhibitions and festivals, among others Perpendicular Brazil (2011), African Heritage London (2010) and Museum Africa Johannesburg South Africa (2011), EPAF11 Warsaw Poland (2011) and Dak’Art Biennale 10th edition (2012). Her public talks include ‘A gaze through the lens of Contemporary African Performance’ South London Gallery, ‘Libidinal Bodies and the space of the Archaeological’ (2011), LAPsody 3rd International Conference & Festival for Live Art and Performance Studies at the Theatre Academy Helsinki (2011), Greenwich International Post-Graduate Research Conference (2008-2011), amongst many others. Nathalie Bikoro is a practicing curator for Contemporary Visual Arts, and an Associate Lecturer (Greenwich University London, South Bank University London and Richmond Adult College). For more information please visit: www.nbikoro.comhttp://savvy-contemporary.com