MAGOLIDE COLLECTIVE

EMERGENCE: AFRI VIOLA

Emergence: Afri Viola is a performance art piece that merges the traditions and conceptual visual language of art and the innovative technology of Virtual Realities. Emergence Afri’ Viola is immersed with visual cues retelling forgotten and omitted histories of African people and the landscape through the re-imaged colourful, comical and animated world of pop-culture. It is inspired by a fresco from the 1400s by Masolino da Panicale, in which a dead ‘westernised’ Christ is shown at the moment of Resurrection. This art work aims to over-turn this convention of the white messiah, whilst exposing the long-term effects of the colonial project through religion on the Black African identity and the plundering of land and mineral resources - stripped, and stolen, only to be re-appropriated into a mouth-piece of Western colonial propaganda. VR and video enable the viewers to have a sense of being there—of living in the moment happening, captured. This can teach us how to see deeply, which is the essence of all spiritual practices. In our mind, technology is ultimately a spiritual force and a part of our inner beings.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Magolide Collective is co-founded by Mzoxolo ‘X’ Mayongo and Adilson Miguel De Oliveira.

Mzoxolo ‘X’ Mayongo, born in Cape Town, is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist and activist whose work ranges from performance and photography to installation and sculpture. He recently completed his Honours in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand and is the co-founder of the Magolide Collective.

Adilson Miguel De Oliveira, born in Bez Valley, Johannesburg, is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist whose work ranges from animation, virtual reality and print-making. He recently completed his Honours in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently an intern at Danger Gevaar Ingozi Studio at Victoria Yards, and the co-founder of the Magolide Collective.

︎: @magolide.co