British vocalist, movement artist and composer of Afro-Caribbean origin, Elaine Mitchener manifests, through the intensity of her presence, voice and gestures, the traces, both past and present, of discrimination and colonial wounds, exposed in all their rawness.
In his Theses On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin developed in 1940 the subversive notion of active remembrance. Our responsibility to the victims of history requires of us the following things: to reject the official version of history established by the victorious, to fight against the fading into the background of the defeated, to remember them, to safeguard within the present a past neither closed nor complete, to make it appear here and now, as threatening as it is, unreconciled with the figures of domination, and to create “constellations” between the different eras. the then + the now = now time explores this notion, the radicality of which, as well as its visceral struggles, felt in every way by the body, both liberate and heal. Elaine Mitchener, an improviser and performer who draws upon a wide range of vocal forms, gives voice to the words of James Baldwin, the abolitionist militant Sojourner Truth and black feminism theorist bell hooks. We also hear a sound-based collage which includes a speech by Labour MP David Lammy, songs from the Caribbean, crowd noises, and deep vibrations. In this way, the work lays down a challenge before us, destabilising time and space, in order to spark off an ever-active memory once again.
Commissioned by MaerzMusik – Festival für Zeitfragen
Foreword by Elaine Mitchener
I first encountered the intellectual world of Walter Benjamin during a symposium on historical monuments—a discussion that explored why such monuments were built, by whom, and for what purpose. The existence of monuments across the globe illustrates that the individuals whose deeds or thoughts appear literally carved in stone continue to watch over our societies and cultures for all time; they effectively steer and define these societies from beyond the grave, acting as a bulwark against the emergence of alternative histories—serving as entrenched narratives and ideas—until the very moment they are toppled in a surge of revolutionary fervor. The tearing down of historical monuments, or the smashing of religious icons, represents the final act of a revolution — a definitive gesture confirming that new ideas and energies have emerged, capable of damming or redirecting the flow of history.
Benjamin’s concept of *Eingedenken* — a form of profound, active remembrance —resonated deeply with me. This act of remembrance entails:
unleashing the past;
flooding the past with new energies.
The idea that this act of re-remembering or re-thinking falls within our own contemporary responsibility struck a chord with me. Although I am no expert on Benjamin, I realised that my earlier work, Sweet Tooth, aligns with his reflections. In that piece, I interrogated British colonial history—specifically the history of my own ancestors, who, as enslaved Africans, were victims rather than beneficiaries of the transatlantic slave trade. I not only confronted the atrocities inflicted upon them, but was also appalled by the sheer scale of the wealth amassed through the slave trade—wealth accumulated in the name of the United Kingdom, as well as other European nations and the United States. But I also celebrated the fearless, courageous spirit of the survivors who, under inhumane and hopeless conditions, created an entirely new culture. While I could not erect stone monuments to these heroic survivors, in Sweet Tooth I sought to transform this alternative history into sound and movement—thereby constructing a new kind of monument.
*Eingedenken* (Remembrance) – a universal philosophical concept
It is not a matter of erasing history, but rather of re-evaluating it. We can only truly rebuild what has been destroyed — a task that requires courage. Like Benjamin, I find it difficult to breathe in this atmosphere.
Can music and dance, then, embody philosophical concepts and drawing from the rarefied, if demanding – air of art, construct new kinds of monuments? In our current climate, we should use art to pose questions, re-evaluate things, and foster change.
the then + the now = now time is an exploration that reflects upon states of existence, inspired by the philosophy of Walter Benjamin. My work does not offer answers; instead, it guides the audience through a surrealist collage of life events and meditative moments. While nothing may appear connected, one is transported from one sonic state to another state of being where the awareness of what came before imbues the present with the possibility of rewriting the future. What matters, ultimately, is the mode of remembrance one chooses to adopt.
With heartfelt thanks to Berno Odo Polzer and his team at MaerzMusik, to Esther Leslie who shared her invaluable knowledge of Walter Benjamin with me and, as always, to AJH.
Director’s Note
the then + the now = now time is a sensory of remembrance laid in the space not as an act of aggression but as an active reminder of an ongoing conversation that has not passed.
As a long time collaborator of the incredible vocal and movement artist Elaine Mitchener, I felt it was vital to approach this work and the theme with sensitive attention to her activist role as a female British artist of Afro-Caribbean heritage. My directorial and choreographic approach to this work was to present to Elaine a series of comments and questions both physical and metaphorical pertaining to her cultural history, social impacts upon her as a black female British artist, personal sense of discovery and the ideas that drive her within the performing space. I asked Elaine to vocally respond reflecting the movement of these memories as a responsibility to bring to the forefront a conversion of historical topics, images, sounds and ideas that should never be forgotten. Coming from a choreographic background, in this work, I depict the sense of memories according to the way they move: ghost like lingering from a proximity, sharp and exacting, entangled, powerfully still and racing like a speeding train hurling from afar. Dam Van Huynh
Reviews and Interviews
“Her performance at Silent Green – an old crematorium converted into a cultural center – hit hard.” Steve Smith, National Sawdust —> Read
“This discourse highlighted the erasure—both national and institutional—of Black citizens. This was the primary motivation behind the creation of this work and what shaped its form.” Interview with Elaine Mitchener by David Sanson for the Festival d’Automne —> Read
Previous dates:
25 March 2019 – silent green, Kuppelhalle, MaerzMusik Festival – Berlin, Germany
9 September 2020 – Maschinenhaus, Ruhrtriennale, Essen – Germany (Cancelled – Covid 19)
2 September 2021 – Wigmore Hall, London – UK
18 November 2021 – Kulturbunker Mülheim, Cologne – Germany
Photo credit:
Adam Janisch