Sizindlebe | We Are Ears 

A collaborative moment of making that emerged out of the workshop process towards Season 9 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Sizindlebe is presented at Fondation Cartier as a series of proposals towards different ways of making work, collectively. 

Opening with the young pianist Maya Muratoglu echoing the names and intonations of her fellow performers, Sizindlebe is an ensemble performance of second translations that, through a series of performative vignettes, deals with the complexity and simultaneity of translation and naming. Through the input of visual artists, musicians, choreographers and dancers, the simultaneity of translation is given room to be explored and exploded.

Ultimately less about the overall performance, and more about the individual moments and revelations contained within it, Sizindlebe is a live discovery of some of the creative strategies and methodologies that emerge through a process of deep, collective listening. It is about an awareness of each other’s stories, histories and ways of living, borne from the simple and profound act of speaking one another’s names. 

Here, naming has an enduring power as a declarative statement of one's existence. Similarly, the absence or the swallowing of one’s own name becomes a powerful reflection on the ways in which people are silenced, muted and erased. Names are embodied and composed, inscribed into the space itself.

Over the course of three Proposals, Sizindlebe also becomes a performance demonstrating process, the evolution of ideas, impulses, and the act of working collaboratively in order to find the less good idea.

CREDITS |  Proposal 1

PIANIST | Maya Muratoglu
CHOREOGRAPHERS & DANCERS | Thulani Chauke, Betty Tchomanga, Teresa Phuti Mojela & Vusi Mdoyi
VOCALIST | Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Sbusiso Shozi, Anathi Conjwa, Dikeledi Modubu & Asanda Hanabe 
PERCUSSIONIST | Angelo Moustapha
PERFORMER | Omid Hashemi
VISUAL ARTISTS | Marcus Neustetter & Pélagie Gbaguidi
FOOTNOTERS | Bronwyn Lace & Athena Mazarakis 

CREDITS |  Proposal 2 

PIANIST | Maya Muratoglu
CHOREOGRAPHERS & DANCERS | Thulani Chauke, Betty Tchomanga, Teresa Phuti Mojela & Vusi Mdoyi 
VOCALISTS & MUSICIANS | Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Sbusiso Shozi, Anathi Conjwa, Dikeledi Modubu & Asanda Hanabe
PERCUSSIONIST | Angelo Moustapha
PERFORMER | Omid Hashemi
VISUAL ARTISTS | Marcus Neustetter & Pélagie Gbaguidi
FOOTNOTERS | Bronwyn Lace & Athena Mazarakis

CREDITS |  Proposal 3

PIANIST | Maya Muratoglu
CHOREOGRAPHERS & DANCERS | Thulani Chauke, Betty Tchomanga, Teresa Phuti Mojela & Vusi Mdoyi
LIVE ARRANGERS | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Sbusiso Shozi
VOCALISTS & MUSICIANS | Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Sbusiso Shozi, Anathi Conjwa, Dikeledi Modubu & Asanda Hanabe
PERCUSSIONIST | Angelo Moustapha
PERFORMER | Omid Hashemi
VISUAL ARTISTS | Marcus Neustetter & Pélagie Gbaguidi
FOOTNOTERS | Bronwyn Lace & Athena Mazarakis 

All text by David Mann