Portraits From the Kochi Biennale: Video Artist Angelica Mesiti

At the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in the Kerala State city of Kochi, India Ink interviewed several exhibiting artists about their work, their expectations for the biennale and the politics of art. The fair will continue until March 13. Angelica Mesiti, 36, who lives in Sydney, works with video and performance. Her video installation is about immigrant musicians.

Q.

Tell us more about “Citizens Band.”

A.

I shot four short films in Paris and Sydney. Each film depicts traditional music being performed in an urban environment. These four musicians, who are immigrants, are exceptional performers. They carried their social and cultural heritage embodied within themselves even after displacement. I think this is a way of preserving one's cultural heritage and personal identity.

Courtesy of Kochi Biennale FoundationAngelica Mesiti.

In one short film, I show Geraldine Zongo, from Cameroon, practicing the traditional African water drumming technique in a swimming pool in Paris. She learned this from her grandmother. It is a technique used in ceremonies by polyphonic groups of women in the rivers. I also filmed Asim Goreshi, a taxi driver from Sudan, who whistles in his taxi in Sydney; Mohammed Zamouric, an Algerian who plays haunting melodies in the metros of Paris; and Bukhu Ghanburghed's Mongolian throat singing in Sydney. I have then fused their music to create a single lilting composition.

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