Circulations: Mobility, Fluidity, Impediments and Implications

This article deals with the author’s multidisciplinary contemporary art practice, which persistently returns to the shared history of Africa and the west, and in which the idea of circulations constitutes an underlying current. It presents an individual approach to this theme, showing the role of autobiography on conceptual artistic proposals that are mostly spread between Mozambique, South Africa and Portugal. The search for resonant visual material coming from both colonial and post-colonial history reveals how the effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism may still be traceable in how most African countries experience difficulties in developing economically sustainable democracies. Special attention is given to the moments of political transition. The article describes a practice that engages closely with buildings and their history, including the works Maison Tropicale (2007), For Mozambique (2008), A Tendency to Forget (2015) and Pan African Unity Mural (2018). It is framed and inspired by writings on African mobility by Achille Mbembe and Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga. It looks at intersections and transient workspaces as conveyors of meaning and includes brief considerations on the circulation of decolonial artistic practices between Portugal and Portuguese-speaking African countries.