Memento @ Momo

One hour performance, drinks served. 52 7th Ave, Parktown North, Johannesburg South Africa

the release:

On 16 June 2006, South Africa celebrates the 30th anniversary of Youth Day. The act of remembrance is shaped by a multitude of senses ranging from sight, sound, physical touch and smell. This year Gallery MOMO invites you to join us in commemorating Youth Day through the experience of sound. On 11 June 2006 a group of artists including Nathaniel Stern, João Orecchia, Shane de Lange, Johan Thom and Dinkies Sithole will work together to create a sound sculpture to commemorate Youth Day. The artists will draw from their own, particular experience of life in contemporary South Africa to formulate a personal, aural response to the celebration of Youth Day. For example, both Shane de Lange and Nathaniel Stern are best known as artists working with digital media to create art: de Lange creates experimental sound by appropriating and sampling sounds from various sources including music, the body and even the sounds of a paper bag; Stern is known as a new media artist who uses interactive digital technology, often drawing the viewer and the artwork together in a new interactive, symbiotic whole. Other participating artists like João Orecchia, Johan Thom and Dinkies Sithole work with media such as musical instruments, video, performance and even their bodies to create experimental works that more often than not, refuse easy classification as ‘visual art’. Nonetheless, all the artists share a playful, experimental approach towards the creation and presentation of their work. In this way, each artist will prepare a series of aural responses to the commemoration of Youth Day. At 16h00, Sunday 11 June 2006, they will come together at Gallery MOMO and enter into dialogue with each other, and the audience, by creating a monument to Youth day through sound.