Performativity: Embodied Practices
savvyContemporary sees itself as a performative space. It is a space in a state of constant becoming while it is a space that explores philosophical concepts of the embodied mind – as understood, since time immemorial, in many non-Western philosophies. In our practice, we acknowledge the fact that human cognition is not only shaped by the brain, but is indeed encompassed in the body which performs cognitive tasks like conceptualisation, reasoning and judgement. Human cognition is formed through interactions with the environment or the world at large. This goes hand in hand with postulations by the like of Francesco Varela et al., who speak about the embodied mind to imply first and foremost that cognition depends on the kind of experiences that come from having a body with various sensorimotor capacities, and secondly, that these individual sensorimotor capacities are themselves embedded in more encompassing biological, psychological and cultural contexts. We agree with Esiaba Irobi who notably described the body as a site of discourse and a platform on or through which histories can be transmitted or narrated.
savvy Contemporary’s efforts are to produce antidotes to the epistemicidal activities that have been practiced all over the globe, by accommodating and celebrating knowledges and epistemic systems from Africa and the African diaspora, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, but also Europe and North America. In so doing, we have chosen to explore other mediums that embody and disseminate knowledges like the body, music, storytelling, food / eating, performativity of different kinds e.g. dance, theatre, performing and performance art, etcetera in an effort to swim against the Enlightenment conception of reason. We scout out possibilities of escaping the vicious and violent cycle of re-referencing historical and philosophical assumptions and postulations that found their way and were fundamental in the construction of the other that was needed to establish a European age of reason.