In the wake of our recent landmark exhibition, THE LIVING ARCHIVES | MEMORIES BEYOND THE ATLANTIC, our curation continues to unfold online, granting you further access to the expansive body of work by critically acclaimed photographer and PhD Researcher, Nicola Lo Calzo, navigating complex geographies, shaped by the histories of the transatlantic slave trade.

Today, we invite you to explore yet another remarkable Series entitled:

TRAGÉDIA | OR THE ART OF PRODUCING ONESELF.

It was there, on São Tomé, that  the Portuguese colonizers arrived in 1471, to establish the laboratory for the system of slavery that would lead to the forced transport of millions of Africans to the Americas. through a plantation economy, based on a racially organized labor systems. 

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As incredible as it may sound, at that time, acting crews arrived from Lisbon and Madeira, at the invitation of sugar plantation owners to  "entertain" the enslaved during breaks from labor on the sugar cane plantations, with performances and  plays that slaves and the first Creoles would ultimately claim for themselves. 

It is these rituals, rediscovered in the wake of decolonization and São Tomé’s subsequent independence in 1975, that Nicola Lo Calzo has been exploring , as part of a body of work that constitutes the collarbone of his now famed KAM research project, which Lo Calzo has been conducting across a decade, as an ongoing anatomy of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacy.

"In my work, I  seek to understand how these memories are passed down across generations, through ancestral rites, that assume contemporary significance in regards to  identity and politics". Lo Calzo focused on two theatrical practices experienced on the ground as a creative response to the violence embodied by colonial oppressors, and a means to commemorate the ancestors.

The first practice, *Tchiloli*, is characterized by a unique repertoire derived from *The Tragedy of the Marquis of Mantua and Emperor Charlemagne*. This play is believed to have been written in the mid-16th century by the Portuguese playwright Baltazar Dias, drawing on legends from the Carolingian cycle, the same cycle that includes the legendary *Song of Roland*. In 2006, ethnologist Françoise Gründ, in a book dedicated to the subject, wondered whether dancing "refined pavanes and minuets in the heart of the jungle" might be "a pretext for resisting the hell of oppression.". 

For Lo Calzo, Tchiloli represents a meeting point between African theater and that of so called European royal courts . It is performed outdoors, notably during the island’s Patron Saint Festivals. "In keeping with European theatrical tradition, cross-dressing plays a significant role, as female parts are usually performed by men. Underlying this, is in fact, a quest for justice." Indeed, at the end of the play, Emperor Charlemagne has his son executed, deeming him guilty of murder. In Tchiloli, the actors perform around a coffin placed at the center of the stage, representing the soul of the murdered character. "It is a veiled way of honouring African ancestors,"  explains Lo Calzo.

The second practice is known as *Danço Congo*. While *Tchiloli* relies on concealment, this second form draws inspiration from the rhythms of Bantu peoples, found throughout Central Africa, from Cameroon to the Comoros. It is essentially a form of pantomime that dramatizes class struggles from the era of the great plantations.

There again, the aim is to recall the past and commemorate ancestors, often with a religious dimension, while implicitly critiquing contemporary society and the simmering social tensions, which constitute the legacy of colonialism that continues in this day and age to pit the ruling elites against the rest of the population, comprising The *Forros* Creole descendants of freed slaves, the Angolares descendants of escaped slaves, and the Serviçais descendants of indentured laborers recruited from Cape Verde, Angola, and Mozambique following the abolition of slavery.

Capturing the complexity of these intangible legacies was no easy task. Nicola Lo Calzo rose to the challenge by using a custom-built hybrid camera, combining a digital sensor with analog lenses, as a way of playing with the shifts and tilts naturally dictated by his subjects.

The KAM Project has undergone further stages in Africa, the Caribbean, as well as the Americas, resulting in several landmark exhibitions, notably in Marrakech, Lagos, Lille, Lyon, Florence, and Amsterdam. "Tragédia will also soon be the subject of a book, soon to be published in three languages (Portuguese, French, and English) by L’Artière.