A constellation
of blackness
Details
Performance
A constellation of blackness
by Josèfa Ntjam
14 October 2023
FormaHQ Residency
Josèfa Ntjam & Sean Hart
3 – 31 May 2023
The new work is commissioned and produced by Forma in collaboration with Nicoletti Contemporary.
A constellation of blackness
Performance by Josèfa Ntjam
14 October 2023, 7.30pm
Follow my journey in London across sound, performance, photomontage and movie. So come to see me at Forma, Nicoletti, Frieze and Barbican. Welcome to my spaceship.
Josèfa Ntjam
Forma is delighted to announce Josèfa Ntjam’s first UK live performance A constellation of blackness, accompanied by a new film realised with video-artist Sean Hart, presented at FormaHQ during Frieze week. Commissioned by Forma, Ntjam and Hart’s new work was developed whilst on residency at FormaHQ during Spring 2023.
A constellation of blackness, is a hypnotic, captivating and powerful 33 minute track, which intertwines reflections on Blackness and gender. It collages Ntjam's spoken word and instrumental improvisation, drawing on Afrofuturist influences and sampled clips including those from popular twentieth-century Black figures. Ntjam confronts references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism and science fiction, speaking about ‘notions of universe expansion, stars, connection to ancestors across the universe’, as well as Blackness, darkness and antimatter.
Ntjam’s sound piece will be performed live at FormaHQ, followed by an intimate gathering that invites guests to touchdown after Ntjam’s series of events across London.
The new work is commissioned and produced by Forma in collaboration with Nicoletti, who are also exhibiting Ntjam’s work at their London gallery in East London and at Frieze London 2023. Ntjam is further part of the group exhibition RE/SISTERS: A Lens on Gender and Ecology at the Barbican Art Gallery, alongside close to 50 pioneering artists including Judy Chicago, Barbara Kruger, Ana Mendieta and Otobong Nkanga (5 October 2023 – 14 January 2024).
During Frieze week, Forma will further present the new commission by this year’s winner of the Frieze artist award Adham Faramawy, partnering up with Frieze for the fifth time. Faramawy’s new film and installation will be screened at the fair during the dates 11 - 15 October 2023.
Artist Biographies
Josèfa Ntjam (born 1992, Metz, France) is an artist, performer and writer whose practice combines sculpture, photomontage, film and sound. Collecting raw material from the internet, books on natural sciences and photographic archives, Ntjam uses assemblage – of images, words, sounds, and stories – as a method to deconstruct the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on origin, identity and race. Her work weaves multiple narratives drawn from investigations into historical events, scientific functions and philosophical concepts, to which she confronts references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism and science-fiction. Drawing on these sources, Ntjam composes speculative narratives which become the matrix for a practice of emancipation that promotes the emergence of inclusive, processual and resilient communities.
Sean Hart (born 1981, France) is a French artist whose work is rooted in the writing and staging of words. His practice uses documentary methods, close to Situationism, to explore the excesses, horrors and hazards of a world where poetry and capitalist critique are pushed to extremes. Hart questions the violence of power, and our individual or collective means to resist its draw. He is part of a generation of artists sowing poetic revolts, who call into question the Establishment, as well as the role of the subjective, individualist artist.
—
Supporters
The Josèfa Ntjam residency and performance is supported by a grant from Fluxus Art Projects and supported by Arts Council England.
Images
Josèfa Ntjam, A constellation of blackness, a live performance at FormaHQ in collaboration with Sean Hart and Steven Jacques. 2023. Commissioned by Forma. Supported by Nicoletti and Fluxus Art Projects. Photography by Sam Nightingale.
Josèfa Ntjam, A constellation of blackness, 2023 (film still). Text, sound and performance by Josèfa Ntjam. Additional vocals by Nina Simone, Saul Williams, Eartha Kitt and Sun Ra. Video by Sean Hart. Commissioned by Forma. Supported by Nicoletti and Fluxus Art Projects.
Josèfa Ntjam, Aquatic Invasion, 2020 Performance as part of La Manutention residency, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Photo: Paul Fogie