kelechi agwuncha


01    video art
        tether
        The Star
        Blacktronika: Sound for Humanity
        double beam
        wham pass intact

02    performance
        amplifies it, doubles, and trebles it
        lovetempo
        chicago architectural biennial
        experimental sound studio
        pitchfork music festival
        tether

03    commercial
        santa fe opera
        museum of international folk art
        santa fe art institute
        vans

04   about



wham pass intact



A video series that meditates on the force of African culture in 'fencing' bodies and martial traditions, where 'fencing' emerges as a term for bodily exchange beyond its Eurocentric sport origins. Through this reinterpretation, fencing is reimagined through new choreographies, spatiality, and masking practices of LARPing, capoeira, and European fencing.

In the fall of 2019, I went to a local movie theater in a mall in La Jolla, California. I had planned only to watch a film, but I stumbled upon fencers training in the windowfront of a nearby store. This encounter inspired me to create a three-part film series about masked performers.I wanted to take an even more speculative approach that would de-program fencing’s standard achievement model. I wanted to direct a scene of play with individuals who were well aware of the theatrics of combat.

screenings:
Tin Flats, Los Angeles, California +
VW Sunday Sessions, MOMA PS1, New York City, NY+
Bulk Space, Rapture Group Screening Detroit, Michigan +

references:

Race, Sport and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora, Ben Carrington, 2010
“Performers And Spectators Transported And Transformed”, Richard Schechner, The Kenyon Review, 1981
“Behind the Inscrutable Wonder: The Dramaturgy of the Mask Performance in Traditional African Society”, Research in African Literatures Journal, Chinyere Grace Okafor, 1991





wham pass intact iteration i

2020, Digital Video, 3 minutes 8 seconds / Featuring UC San Diego Triton Fencing Team (La Jolla, California)

The intense physical tension between fencers is documented through decelerating and tracking their movements to accentuate the rhythms of their jousts. This video anchors the Wham Pass Intact series, offering a cinematic context to athletic performance.

video link: N/A


wham pass intact iteration ii

Live action role players (LARPers) reference fencing in a street performance, marking the beginning of the series' exploration, which reinterprets players' use of spatial resistance to redefine traditional fencing spaces.

Featuring Night Terrors LARPers (San Diego, California)

*LARPing embraces the theatrics / make-believe of class rank through cosplay characters that often combat i.e. knights, vampires, elves

link ->
2020, Digital & HD Video, 4 minutes 24 seconds



wham pass intact iteration iii

Filmed on a track and football field on the South Side of Chicago, an electronic drum beat weaves around capoeiristas dueling, intensifying their bodily dialogue and dramatics of their masked transformation.

Featuring Gingarte Capoeira (Chicago, Illinois)

*Capoeira’s spiritual folklore traces back to the 16th century, when Zumbi dos Palmares, an Angolan war commander, founded a maroon town in Brazil for runaway enslaved people. To defend against Portuguese colonial forces, Palmares organized combat rituals in 'open rodas,' circular formations where the community supported the tempo with drums, singing, and clapping.
link ->
screenings:
Bulk Space, Rapture Group Screening Detroit, Michigan +
aCinema Exhibition, Milwaukee, Wisconsin +
2020, Digital Video, 8 minutes 30 seconds