Trans-architecture is a conceptual performance piece by Roland Gunst aka John K Cobra. The performance took place at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in February 2022 as part of The Centre’s For Once programme.

Two figures draped in cloth are situated on one side of the stage. They are reminiscent of the wrapped buildings of Christo and Jeanne-Claude – motionless, statuesque, silent but softly disruptive structures.

A voice emerges from off stage, abstract spoken word, and the performers are activated. They begin slowly, their movements interspersed with an even percussion and sharp, shimmering synth. Together, they shift, melt, merge and coalesce. It is at once unsettling and affective, whole buildings and empires rising and falling in unison.

“Monumentality should not be sought in rigid stone, but in individuals and their unique capacity for self and social criticism,” posits the framing text for Trans-architecture. “How do we challenge systems of oppression such as (neo-)imperialism, (neo-)colonialism, capitalism and authoritarianism and the stone monuments that represent and reproduce them? Trans-architecture offers a solution; it installs a 'fluid architecture'.”

It is through this “fluid architecture”, charged and held by performers Muzi Shili and Smangaliso Ngwenya, that these nebulous, but predominant notions of power, identity and their various intersections can be drawn out and destabilised.

At its core, Trans-architecture uses the body – strikingly adorned and abstracted by Angelinah Maponya’s costume design – as a driving force for disruption, transformation and speculation. In the second half of the performance, Shili and Ngwenya abandon their measured actions and embrace a more spectral, mercurial movement.

The music changes to suit their tone, the scene takes on a different atmosphere, too. They are altering the space, refiguring its design. New structures emerge, hold, and fall away in perpetuity. Borders and boundaries slip away, falling into the soft folds of material and movement. The centre shifts and falls into a state of flux. Something new emerges, always.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

DIRECTOR & CONCEPTUALISER | Roland Gunst \ John K Cobra
CHOREOGRAPHERS | Roland Gunst \ John K Cobra, Smangaliso Ngwenya & Macaleni Muzi Shili
PERFORMERS | Smangaliso Ngwenya & Macaleni Muzi Shili
COSTUME DESIGNER | Angelinah Maponya
SOUNDSCAPE | Roland Gunst \ John K Cobra
SET CONSTRUCTION | Joey Netshiombo & Bongani Mpofu