Ghetto Gucci works on

Vision Forum is happy that the Swedish-Haitian team that showed Ghetto Gucci at documenta fifteen will continue to work together. They were originally meant to travel to Port-au Prince to develop new work. However, due to the unrest on the western part of the island, they were advised against travelling to Haiti. They will therefore travel to Guadeloupe October 12-28, 2024 to be in residence and to work on Ghetto Gucci II (working title.)

The group, has since spring 2024, been developing a new performance that has been designed to move through different architectural settings. It is divided into four parts where the audience follows the performers on a journey into the unknown and where each scene elaborates on differences and similarities between European and Haitian culture.

For the piece the group focuses on one of the most well-known Haitian cultural traits, the zombie. The group uses the image of the zombie to investigate how different cultures take in the zombie, how it is reshaped by each culture and through that revealing its inherent values. The work also reveals  how forms of malicious (and benevolent?) forms of control can be carried out and through that reflecting on free will, the history of slavery in the Caribbean and the new world.

In the performance, the group presents a number of tableaux vivant where costumes, props, light, sound and movement form an emotive whole. For the piece, the group has also created new digital technology in dialogue with Dutch neuroscientist Robert Oostenveld that enables the group to use microbes to generate sound and moving images in real time and integrate kinetic sculpture into the performance.

The project is produced by Vision Forum (www.visionforum.eu) and supported by Kulturbryggan in Stockholm.