Tchiloli Demasked – a voyage through tales of resistance and self-exploration
Exhibition
Sargfabrik Goldschlagstraße 169, 1140 Wien
13.9.—23.11.2025
Artists: Vollmann Felix
What may appear as a faithful reenactment of Emperor Charlemagne’s legends is, when decoded, a camouflaged act of rebellion. Behind the white mask, black São Tomeans have created a space where colonial power structures are subverted in a manner so subtly that the oppressor failed to perceive it. With fast-paced rhythms, performers dressed as Carolingian heroes express an ancestral spirituality while reciting verses in archaic Portuguese, the language of the colonizer. Undermining this ambiguity, the marks of physical, psychological, and epistemic violence left by colonialism also manifest in this play, exposing traces of the internalized self-hatred and the desire to assimilate to white societal norms so well described by Frantz Fanon and other postcolonial thinkers. “Tchiloli Demasked” is an invitation to explore Afrofuturist visions that challenge Eurocentric perspectives on art, memory, culture, and identity.
In today’s era of technological influence on the perception of reality and history, boundaries between past, present, and future blur just as in Tchiloli. Demasking is decolonizing.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
In today’s era of technological influence on the perception of reality and history, boundaries between past, present, and future blur just as in Tchiloli. Demasking is decolonizing.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
Viewing by appointment only
annabella.supper@sargfabrik.at
free entry Barrier-free
Artists: Vollmann Felix
What may appear as a faithful reenactment of Emperor Charlemagne’s legends is, when decoded, a camouflaged act of rebellion. Behind the white mask, black São Tomeans have created a space where colonial power structures are subverted in a manner so subtly that the oppressor failed to perceive it. With fast-paced rhythms, performers dressed as Carolingian heroes express an ancestral spirituality while reciting verses in archaic Portuguese, the language of the colonizer. Undermining this ambiguity, the marks of physical, psychological, and epistemic violence left by colonialism also manifest in this play, exposing traces of the internalized self-hatred and the desire to assimilate to white societal norms so well described by Frantz Fanon and other postcolonial thinkers. “Tchiloli Demasked” is an invitation to explore Afrofuturist visions that challenge Eurocentric perspectives on art, memory, culture, and identity.
In today’s era of technological influence on the perception of reality and history, boundaries between past, present, and future blur just as in Tchiloli. Demasking is decolonizing.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
In today’s era of technological influence on the perception of reality and history, boundaries between past, present, and future blur just as in Tchiloli. Demasking is decolonizing.
Attention: For details on accessibility, please contact the program partner directly.
What may appear as a faithful reenactment of Emperor Charlemagne’s legends is, when decoded, a camouflaged act of rebellion. Behind the white mask, black São Tomeans have created a space where colonial power structures are subverted in a manner so subtly that the...
Opening hours:
Viewing by appointment only
annabella.supper@sargfabrik.at
Address:
Goldschlagstraße 169
1140 Wien
Goldschlagstraße 169
1140 Wien