Sumayya Vally (Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, 1990)
lives and works in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa and London, UK
Moad Musbahi
lives and works in Tripoli, Libya and New York, USA
The African Post Office
Sumayya Vally (Pretoria, Republic of South Africa, 1990)
lives and works in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa and London, UK
Moad Musbahi
lives and works in Tripoli, Libya and New York, USA
As a space for sorting and processing, the African Post Office brings together different ‘posts’ from across the continent and the larger lagoon of Venice. The project develops an intercontinental bureaucratic apparatus using the simple technology of the post. It operates in two dimensions: as a spatial reinterpretation of the post as a pole, and as the infrastructural mechanism of a postal network that considers routes of prior passage.
Experienced both visually and aurally, a language and related index of the ‘post’ is developed, building on the logic of minarets and totems, two sociocultural technologies with far-reaching African influence. The field of posts of various thicknesses and heights have individual markings and attachments. Some hold flags of nations that no longer exist, and others are simply attachment points waiting to be moored.
Authorial collaborators
Sukanta Majumdar (Sound Designer), Adam Anabosi (Sound Research Support), Thania Peterson (Sound Artist Collaborator)
Technical collaborators
Grazia Sechi (Production Support), Alessandro Braggio (Fabricator)
Team
Tonia Murray, Counterspace, Adam Anabosi (Sound Research Support)