3.12.2020 Lecture and Happening
Em’kal Eyongakpa
Drawing on dreams, visions and observations, Em’kal Eyongakpa approaches the experienced and the unknown through an almost ritual use of repetition and transformation. The quest for negotiation between/coexistence of the subjective and objective realm is increasingly central to Eyongakpa’s artistic practice.
In 2013, following a physical condition undiagnosed by modern medicine but later successfully treated by a blind, spiritual healer, Eyongakpa took more interest in finding links between art, shamanism and technology. This event rekindled his aspiration to study ethnobotany (he already holds an MSc in botany) and his interest in the legacy of his grandfathers who were both shamans.
In his installation Untitled (?? full moons later/letters from etokobarek [europe]) the artist intuitively intertwines or brings together basic analog mechanics, sculpture, video, sound, scribblings, text and photography in a fashion that not only obscures the boundaries between the employed media, but could also distort the notion of the real and illusion. Eyongakpa imagines a future in which these subjective and objective worlds could coexist and collaborate more fully.