Yana Tsegay
Yana Tsegay Yana Tsegay
I perceive the cave as a speculative canvas and as an intersection of painting and cultural history where notions of primordiality are challenged. In my artistic practice, the cave is entered in a speculative manner as a place of unlearning and reinvention. My involvement with cave painting starts with Cave Paintings (2017) and continues through 2022 in the form of a research and a publication: From the Stone Age to the Present refers to Georges Bataille’s writings on the rock paintings of Lascaux.
Aside from the cave, I am also interested in historical events like the invention of fire or cultural sites such as the Amber Room. They serve as starting lines for the reshaping and appropriation of history in the context of painting.
Recognizing the history of painting as malleable and appropriable opens up the possibility of writing one’s own history while avoiding external definition. Texts like Kodwo Eshun’s Further Considerations on Afrofuturism are a key component of my discussion in this regard.
Working with museum exhibition displays and spaces is also part of my transformative practice. Here, I wonder: what cultural concept is engraved in these spaces? How can I create moments of displacement and transform settings? I want to reclaim the spaces of museums, palaces, and huts, by working as a performer or with the format of artistic intervention.