Angelica Mesiti, Citizens Band.
If there’s one work that speaks louder than any, it’s that of Angelica Mesiti’s stunning four-channel video work Citizens Band. Comprising four screens arranged in a perfect, inward-facing square and unfolding in four distinct chapters, the work simply and poetically captures the unlikely musical performances of a quartet of migrant protagonists. Cameroon percussionist Geraldine Zongo drums the water of a Parisian indoor swimming pool, creating echoing rhythms with only the dunk and splash of her hands. A tradition which was taught to her by her grandmother in th rivers of Tanzania; Algerian Mohammad Lamourie sings a haunting lament to the plink and plonk of his decrepit Casio keyboard on the Paris metro; Mongolian throat-singer Bukhchuluun Ganburged plays a traditional fiddle and flaunts his incredible vocal craft on Sydney street corner; and Sudanese taxi driver Asim Goreshi whistles angelically in the front seat of his Brisbane cab.Indoor Parisian swimming pools, kinetic light sculptures and replica primate enclosures from the Berlin Zoo, all feature in the latest chapter of ACCA’s annual exhibition series, NEW12.
