On going ensemble of polyphonic pieces.

At the moment it includes: Democracy among Tyrants (dv video; 2009), Conchs (somewhere in Djibouti), (c-print photograph; 2009), Jeunes Spartianes S’afronttant (1860-62) Edgar Degas, (set of two posters; 2009), decor as allegory/ form as reference/ practice as folklore (for port-town), (ceramics and rope; 2010), The Mode and Model of Deliberative Voice, (set of 13 c-print photographs; 2009) and collection of texts ranging from ‘The histories’ by herodotus, the essay ‘Post-Modern ethnography’ by stephen a. Tyler and the article ‘africa’s Great Rift’ by curt stager for national Geographic Magazine May 1990, among others.

The video Democracy among Tyrants is the central element in the series. With around 10 minutes and a single black&white shot, the video recreates a brief shot from the first cinema adaptation of “The Lord of the flies”, dated from 1963. A voice over accompanies the image, narrating the story told by Herodotus when of the first Persian war. Herodotus tells of an assembly among Greek leaders under the power of Darius, the Persian King. Confronted with the possibility of escape from war, the Greeks group for deliberation. Warned of the imminent danger of democracy in their former territories, system that would promptly overtake them, they proceed with a vote in common, deliberating by majority to remain in war. Thus Herodotus narrates the paradox where democracy sees itself excluded by a polling and where each leader-tyrant assumes an equitable weight in deliberation.

A deconstruction of the assembly model of vote narrated in William Golding’s book ‘The Lord of the flies”, as well as its iconography; classical references found in the posthumous painting by Edgar Degas Jeunes Spartianes s’afronttant; folk, natural and industrial references; and several literary texts and theoretical texts expand conceptually the narrative between within the work.