This ship would set sail, even anchored as it was
1-54 extensive educational programme of talks and cultural events, included performance art too. In 2016 for the second edition of 1-54 New York, artist Dave McKenzie produced a slow text-based performance using prototyped sneakers: This ship would set sail, even anchored as it was.
Black Noise
Elisabeth Efua Sutherland 'Black Noise' at 1-54 Marrakech 2018 © Adnane Zemmama and Mostapha Elhamlili
In 2018 for the first edition of 1-54 Marrakech included a special collaboration with performance artist Elisabeth Edua Sutherland. Co-presented by 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Gallery 1957 and MACAAL, Sutherland’s performance, Black Noise, explores black as a lament, colour and meditation. Using sound, movement, and simple interactivity, Sutherland, together with eight fellow performers, incorporates components of contemporary, modern, and traditional Ghanaian dance, with song and spoken word in English and Twi, an Akan dialect.
Performance art in the time of protest and pandemic
In 2021, with the pandemic spreading worldwide, we went back to talk about performance art during a time of isolation and restriction.
Within this context how have performance practices and processes changed? When an audience is being restricted from gathering but also driven to gather to fight against issues of systemic racism, how can, and has, performance been a part of these conversations? Where are performance practices going next?