Nightwatch
Skin Mutts got the chance to participate to Nightwatch, the project trajectory organised by the FOMU (Photography Museum of Antwerp).
During Nightwatch, the selected young artists work with coaches to bring their work to life and expose it in the museum. Olivia Lopez Calderon, head of Skin Mutts worked alongside other three artists to create a video installation.
Adel Setta, Gulsah Ayla Bayrak and Othi Berry were the subjects of the work in which Olivia analysed the relationship between body language and verbal language in polyglot people. During interviews spoken in different languages, dutch, english, lingala, turkish and arabic, the people in front of the camera where asked to tell stories or remember moments of their lives. Memories of far away countries, shame of forgetting a language and excitement for the native culture created an interesting and introspective final product. The exhibition took place on 28th February 2020 in the FOMU, the Photography Museum of Antwerp, alongside other 9 projects of mixed media by young Belgian artists.
The exhibition was visitable for the whole weekend. Together with the video interviews, also the poem "Search For My Tongue" by Sujata Bhatt was part of the installation. The poem explores the internal conflict the poet feels about losing their Indian identity, specifically their fear of forgetting their mother tongue in their adopted country, England.
