by Anne-Britt Rage
This project was shown at the Art museum in Drammen, Norway
The performance "Holding onto ubuntu" addresses solidarity with the anti-apartheid struggle, the experiende of corruption and the experience of a traumatized country. It tells about the work of the Revolution for sale project, about the liberation hero Chris Hani, who was killed right outside his home at the beginning of a free South Africa.
It tells the story of a white woman who had just given birth, who is caught in corruption and threatened to be deprived of her child. It is a story from a white woman's perspective about her encounter with Western South Africa and about her love to this country.
The artist strives to move freely between a micro and macro-political perspective. She reflects on the white woman's possiblities to manouvre, role as victim and personal tragedy. This she makes with References to a post apartheid South Africa and with references to the colonial era.
Rage's performance lies in the intersection between critical whiteness theory, personal narrative and academic analysis with emphasis on colonialism and the present South Africa.
Anne-Britt Rage uses video and sound to build a background for her story. She performs in Norwegian and English.
The performance is based on the artist's experience through her stay in Cape Town and her studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, from January 2009 to November 2011.
Length: 40 minutes
Anne-Britt Rage is a socially-engaged political scientist and concept artist with background from the research institute PRIO, Stellenbosch University of South Africa and the State Art Norwegian National Academy of Arts. She has worked many years abroad in Germany (Berlin), Spain (Barcelona), France (Marseille), Russia (St. Petersburg / Kronstadt) and South Africa (Cape Town / Stellenbosch) where she has initiated projects with the main emphasis on migration, xenophobia and feminism.
Contact: ragerock@hotmail.com
