Eshina lyo ku topa topa / Typewriter, a performance by Tuli Mekondjo

Please join us on Tuesday, April 30, from 6-7 pm for a performance titled Eshina lyo ku topa topa / Typewriter, presented by artist Tuli Mekondjo. 

In Eshina lyo ku topa topa / Typewriter, Mekondjo stages a ceremonial offering to her Namibian women ancestors.

This performance takes cues from the German colonial enterprise in Namibia (1884-1919), transforming a moment of imagined colonial communication into a space for ancestral honoring. Incorporating sonic and visual elements such as photography, typewriters, and whistles, the artist explores how communication and transportation technologies were used to support the colonial project of extraction and ethnic cleansing in Namibia. Imagining a short-circuited communication between German officers, Mekondjo channels into this space, instead, the spirits of Namibian women who labored as domestic and railway construction workers during the colonial era.

Drawing on her ongoing research into pre-colonial Aawambo fertility dolls, Mekondjo carries a doll on her back to honor her ancestors and reflect on the losses experienced during her lifetime and the preceding decades: “This doll is an embodiment of every single ancestor, every single relative that I never met.”

This event is presented as part of the gallery exhibition Cantando Bajito: Testimonies on view now through May 4.

Image courtesy of Scherz Collection, Basler Afrika Bibliographien

About the artist

Tuli Mekondjo

Tuli Mekondjo (b.1982 Angola) is a Namibian artist whose richly multifaceted practice considers the sociohistorical context of Namibia as a site to re-evaluate and consider ideas around ancestry and identity. Mekondjo lives and works in Windhoek, Namibia. Known for her mixed media and embroidered paintings, Mekondjo’s rigorous practice is a pursuit to connect with and honor her Namibian heritage.  Her practice in both mixed media and performance navigates feelings of displacement, having spent her childhood in refugee camps in Angola and Zambia during the Namibian War of Independence. Sensitive explorations of history and ancestry allow Mekondjo to address, question, and heal parts of this past, deftly weaving personal and collective trauma with beauty, nature, and optimism.