FROM SIGNAL TO DECAY: VOLUME 4
TREVOR MATHISON
ARGOS CENTRE FOR AUDIOVISUAL ART
RUE DU CHANTIER 13
BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 7-24, 2023
Darkness apart from a series of
(banana) yellow neon lights
Two large screens face each other
Eight speakers are suspended
four on each side of the aisle
broadcasting sounds and voices
simultaneously or in cascade
An Afro-French-speaking scholar
comments Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
(1899)
The book contrasts
British colonial efficiency
in partnership with the natives
with the brutality of colonization in Congo
as if there was a good and a bad
colonisation
Another voice reads a passage of the book
celebrating the greatness of
captains, generals, admirals
facing the sea and its mysteries
to discover, by moonlight
distant lands
The ceiling with its wooden frame
like the dark holds of a ship
The yellow neon lights
like so many taverns in port towns
A woman talks about her black fellows
with their sweaty bodies
white eyeballs, bones, muscles, energy of movement
Opposite, a man's voice
shares his memories of Congo
with its lucrative plantations of normal bananas
palm oil, papayas, plantains
which are not fruits but foods
like cassava
which he likens to our potatoes
On one of the large screens
black and white videos
Fragments of Brussels' heritage
Saint Michael slaying the dragon
windows where raindrops drip
Another screen
Images of sea and rain
permeated by the stories we've just heard
Our body moving from one voice to another
diffuse sound waves
Acoustic layers while our eyes evolve
in the melancholy
of black and white images
Ripening of the minds
ripening of bananas
imported from Congo
and stored in the sixties
in the building which now houses Argos
Roshan Di Puppo
(banana) yellow neon lights
Two large screens face each other
Eight speakers are suspended
four on each side of the aisle
broadcasting sounds and voices
simultaneously or in cascade
An Afro-French-speaking scholar
comments Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
(1899)
The book contrasts
British colonial efficiency
in partnership with the natives
with the brutality of colonization in Congo
as if there was a good and a bad
colonisation
Another voice reads a passage of the book
celebrating the greatness of
captains, generals, admirals
facing the sea and its mysteries
to discover, by moonlight
distant lands
The ceiling with its wooden frame
like the dark holds of a ship
The yellow neon lights
like so many taverns in port towns
A woman talks about her black fellows
with their sweaty bodies
white eyeballs, bones, muscles, energy of movement
Opposite, a man's voice
shares his memories of Congo
with its lucrative plantations of normal bananas
palm oil, papayas, plantains
which are not fruits but foods
like cassava
which he likens to our potatoes
On one of the large screens
black and white videos
Fragments of Brussels' heritage
Saint Michael slaying the dragon
windows where raindrops drip
Another screen
Images of sea and rain
permeated by the stories we've just heard
Our body moving from one voice to another
diffuse sound waves
Acoustic layers while our eyes evolve
in the melancholy
of black and white images
Ripening of the minds
ripening of bananas
imported from Congo
and stored in the sixties
in the building which now houses Argos
Roshan Di Puppo