Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
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Larry Achiampong, GB/GH
The Expulsion, 2019, © Larry Achiampong. Photo © Manifesta 14 Prishtina / Majlinda Hoxha.
Capital-driven labour markets draw many migrants into shadowy parallel realities. Strangely, often painfully suspended between the world they have left and the one in which they are yet to arrive, they clean, maintain and secure the city for others in eerie late-night or early-morning environments. Touching the same things and occupying the same spaces, the two groups coexist, but never meet.
In The Expulsion, as in other works, Larry Achiampong probes the potential of imaginary time travel to overcome this displacement and its perpetuation of loss, isolation and inequality. In this, he is guided by a term he refers to as Sanko-Time, inspired by the Ashanti concept of Sankofa, common to the people of Ghana.
Frequently symbolised by a bird that is positioned forward with its head turned backwards and an egg held in its mouth, Sankofa emphasises the indispensability of memory and ancient knowledge in reimagining the future.