Nazareth’s long walks question the notion of boundaries and the global scale. In L’Arbre D’Oublier consists of four performance videos: L'Arbre D'Oublier [Tree of Forgetfulness], Cine África, Cine Brasil and Ipê Amarelo. In the video of the same name, filmed in Ouidah, which was once home to one of Africa’s largest slave trade ports, the artist walks 437 times around the Tree of Forgetfulness. It was around this tree that men were forced to encircle seven times in a rite meant to erase their memories of the past before being shipped to the Americas as enslaved people. This performance gesture — a poetic attempt to rewind history that Nazareth repeats around other trees in Africa and Brazil, such as the ipê-amarelo (the country's national symbol) — associates the act of walking with a profound sense of historical responsibility and collective memory.
Awards
- 19th Festival | Southern Panoramas | Main exhibition Arquetopia_Videobrasil Residency Prize (Puebla, Mexico)