e-flux lectures: Filipa César, “Humble Derives From Humus”

A reading of Amílcar Cabral’s agronomic writings exposes the substrata of a syntax for liberation later performed in guerrilla language and struggle. It is a timely reminder in troubled times, a commoning of the humble — reclaiming soil as a rhizosphere rich in animated beings and inscriptions of oppression. A place to return to in order to regenerate a future multitude that was divided through the violent engineering of the Capitalocene. This take, on Amílcar Cabral’s agency as an agronaut, ventures through his soil cosmologies, mesologies, meteorizations, atmos-lithos conflict zones, celluloid compost, imperial consumptions — the sugar question.

It matters what matters matter matters.​

Filipa César is an artist and filmmaker interested in the fictional aspects of the documentary, the porous borders between cinema and its reception, and the politics and poetics inherent to moving image. Since 2011, she has been looking into the origins of the cinema of the African Liberation Movement in Guinea Bissau as a laboratory of resistance to ruling epistemologies. César premiered her first feature-length essay-film Spell Reel at the Forum section of the 67th Berlinale, 2017. 

Selected exhibitions and screenings have taken place at the 29th São Paulo Biennial, 2010; Manifesta 8, Cartagena, 2010; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2011–15; Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2012; Kunstwerke, Berlin, 2013; SAAVY Contemporary, Berlin 2014–15;  Tensta konsthall, Spånga, 2015;  Mumok, Vienna, 2016; Contour 8 Biennial, Mechelen and Gasworks, London, 2017.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.