Hosted at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in February 2018, this event sees founder of The Centre William Kentridge in conversation with Professor of American and European Literature at King's College, London, Fellow of the British Academy, and leading cultural and social theorist Paul Gilroy. Forming part of The Centre’s In Conversation programme, the evening saw the two discussing the topic of Africans in War, and in particular, the development of Kentridge's The Head and the Load project. They are later joined by dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma.

Beginning with an outline of the impetus for The Head and the Load, and the history of millions of African porters and carriers who served the British, French and German forces of the First World War, Kentridge and Gilroy discuss the difficulty of being able to place Africa back into the centre of reflection on the world’s wars, and of the erasure of particular lines of history and narrative.

Musings between Gilroy and Kentridge range from the lingering pathology of the empire and the role of artists in leading our collective need for the interrogation of history and modernity, to the mechanical absurdities of early war. This later gives way to brief showings of The Head and the Load in its workshop phase.

The two are subsequently joined by renowned dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma, who is also a key performer in the piece, to discuss “the spasm of history”. Maqoma demonstrates an embodiment of the discourses in the work through a performance of the body that he explains as being both at odds with itself, and always responding to an experience of violence.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PROJECT MANAGER | Shruthi Nair
STAGE MANAGER | Hayleigh Evans & POPArt Productions