“banothando” by Rike Sitas (ZA) and Lilia Pérez (MX/NL)

Africa elena @ 9:38 pm

Interactive installation. 2010

“banothando” is the isZulu word for the shared loving feeling of a

community. The title for this work came from one of the project

participants when describing what links the people of the Early

Morning market with each other.

“banothando” is a follow up of the collaboration between Mexican

artist Lilia Pérez and dala that started with the interactive

installation, Sawubona, produced in Amsterdam. It constitutes a series

of interactive portraits that use physical contact between people and

images of people as an interface to the stories gathered by Rike and

Lilia during the world cup and immediately after it when the general

enthusiasm mixed with uncertainty about the future of the market

traders’ livelihoods.

When the spectator approaches “banothando”, she will be confronted

with one of the market traders, observing her from the projected image

of their market stand surrounded by the merchandise they sell. From

this pose and the framing of the shot, the character seems to be

waiting for a customer. The character will carry on like this,

breathing and blinking, sometimes smiling until the spectator touches

the screen. As soon as contact is made, the character starts moving,

responding with the same gesture, placing her hand and gaze on the

user’s hand, following any route it follows. While the virtual and the

present hand touch, the spectator will be able to listen to the

trader’s stories about the market, life in general and the effect of

the world cup in their life and surroundings. When the contact stops,

the character will become silent again. Trapped in this small sequence

of gestures the character and the viewer meet one another in an

instant of simulated communion. Physical contact, so natural for the

market traders amongst each other, but so rare between the

predominantly Indian and Zulu traders, and the very often white

visitors of the gallery, becomes a condition for communication as well

as an ingredient for emphatic listening.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.