Paper is a Leaf That Will Destroy Us in its Fall

The meaning of a word is nothing other than the totality of its uses. – J.S. Madumulla

In the oral tradition of the Lega – a group of people from the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo – the proverb string plays an important role. An average string carries 40-60 miniature objects, each representing a proverb and traditionally function as carriers of wisdom. The meaning of these objects is activated in social situations, told and re-told, often in a debate and discussion, by members of the community.

Sarah van Lamsweerde’s project Paper is a Leaf That Will Destroy Us in its Fall explores this past tradition, and questions what it would mean to develop such a tangible ideographic tool in this age of virtual images and communications.

The premise for this project presents us with aesthetical and ethical questions: what symbols to harvest from our contemporary jungle overgrown with Action shops and viral lifehacks? Is this form of cultural appropriation a dubious exercise or a good starting point for a conversation piece?

Together with fellow-artists Esther Mugambi and Alex Zakkas, van Lamsweerde explores to what extent our individual tales are collective and how (un)common our places in the world are. Existing and imaginary metaphors emerge through strangely familiar but clearly contemporary objects, tales and actions, creating a speculative view on what forms of knowledge can be extracted from interactions with our environment today.More than making sense of this world, this performance looks for connections both mundane and mystical by examining seeds of thought, burning dorito’s and other breaths of fresh unknown.