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By Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
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Published on October 17, 2025
nora chipaumire's "Dambudzo." Photo by Tony Turner
Concept & Creative Direction: nora chipaumire
Performers: nora chipaumire, Tatenda Chabarwa, Joyce Delores Edwards, SoKo Jena, Fatima Katiji, Jonathan Kudakwashe Daniel, Mohamed Y. SHIKA, tyroneisaacstuart, Shamar Watt
Music recordings: Bhundu Boys, Dollar Brand - Abdullah Ibrahim
Film Production: Mieke Ulfig
Sound engineers: Vusumuzi Moyo, Kwamina Biney
Technical Director: Heidi Eckwall // TD Assistant: Soren Kodak
Production assistant: Sylvester Akakpo
October 8, 2025
*Dambudzo is a commission of Wiener Festwochen and Festival d’Automne à Paris, produced by nora chipaumire and developed in residency with Callie's Berlin. Funded by the Visual Arts Project Fund of the Goethe-Institut. nora chipaumire inc. is supported by the Mellon Foundation
nora chipaumire's Dambudzo. Photo: Julieta Cervantes
enter
a space of confrontation
roving light
fugitive shadows
piercing whistles
a circle chant
clapping hands
restless feet
air alive
open late
“the shebeen is a learning space”
to share
to roam
to encounter
to overcome
joy
power
fear
oppression
dambudzo — trouble
bodies and shadows in equal play
the voids let light in
blood rises to drums
knees shake
heels dig
chests pump
arms swing wide
dancing in and out of silhouette
an unstable space
where great bright divides descend from on high
partition experience
herd the crowd
you must choose a side
a contested space
soccer ball loosed to the crowd
a game with no aim or goal
but to keep the ball in play
by any means necessary
with stakes like this
bodies are trained for what—
to comply
or to resist?
cardboard floor dimpled and scuffed with footfalls
cardboard walls thudded with dull red clay
projectiles splattered and smudged
the handprints of a slipping grasping scrum
the caged desperation of the renegade
irrepressible
ever free
who is saved?
who is free?
wired in defense
or in sculptural repose
bodies of defiance
a shared language
pounded by steady feet
conjured by turning palms
fired by the intellect of the spine
light settles
sound lulls
the crowd comes to rest
“it’s 4 a.m. now”
voices rise together
an incantatory cycle
an insistent presence
each voice reaches out in turn
howling hoarse
a whispered plea
a collective yearning
remembrance transcends time
the lament contains the will to overcome
body / shadow
human / animal
rapture / rage
are the lines so clear?
witness becomes participant
we are all welcome here
we are all implicated here
we are all together here
together in body
together in space
together in rhythm
together in confrontation
dambudzo — trouble
once we enter
there is no way out but through
together
