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Décoquillons nous! - container installation by Nelson Niyakire


  • Zeitz MOCAA, Waterfront Cape Town (map)

In sculpture, the presence of the artist can be guessed in the form of the object, but this pre-sence remains abstract. In front of the object, we are in front of a dialogue between the artist and the material, this dialogue can last 5min as it can last 10 years.

The material keeps in his memory the movement of the artist. It is this movement, in another word this language that I wanted to capture by having a strong presence on the material or the object in the making, but also the artist’s presence. From this combi-nation, between the body of the artist and the object in the making (matter), the work comes to light. The presentation of the work raises other questions about the identification of the medium. First, the object and the artist’s body make the work in the form of sculpture. Se-condly, the object is worn by me or by another person, which becomes a performance because the weight of the object is in most cases impor-tant (heavy).Third, the work is presented in a photographic form. In the end, the work finds its ultimate aspect in this Trinitarian form.