A Sonic Happening in Three Acts - Film Registration Collection Stedelijk Museum.
Messengers of the Sun is a project consisting of performances and textile installation that explores multiple magical layers of Black Atlantic interactions. Taking the form of an Afrofuturist ceremonial procession led by music and dancers, the performance moves through the museum. The title refers to a mythical story in which the lost children of the prophet Sun Ra are “messengers of the sun.” They live in the Sirius-B galaxy, to which ancestors from the African diaspora migrated in times of destruction in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The project was co-conceived by visual artists Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic. Together, they reinterpret the transatlantic colonial history of indigo-blue textiles, which is deeply connected with the colonial and slavery history of the Netherlands; the textiles were made particularly valuable by the African slave trade. In the installation and the performers’ garments, the indigo color represents the diasporic, cultural, and economic history of textile trade and memories of ancient spirits that are woven or saturated into the fabrics. Moreover, indigo is thought to have sacred ancestral powers, and through Messengers of the Sun, these spiritual powers are connected to the museum space and brought to the viewer of the performance.
Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic, 'Messengers of the Sun', 2022. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Petra Katanic.
Concept, Research, Dramaturgy and Choreography: Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic
Dancers: Antonio Jose Guzman, Avalon Brown, Shanty Monkou, Robin Nimanong. Nathan Feliot, Mindy Cabezas & Dance Group Kuryzaraa
Musicians: Tatiana Koleva, Joep Vlaar, Ramiro Olivares Fuchss
Extra Performers: Iva Jankovic Choreographic advisor: Marjolein Vogels.
Music: Transillumination #1 - A DNA Sequencing Orchestration composed by Antonio Jose Guzman
Production: Hidde van Greuningen
Curators: Amanda Pinatih, Britte Sloothaak, Jasmijn Mol (intern)
This performance is part of the exhibition When Things Are Beings at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam