Performer and choreographer Yinka Esi Graves (London, England, 1983) develops her practice based on research into the cultural intersections originating in flamenco. In a work that intertwines music, dance and text, the artist seeks to uncover the contribution of black women to the development of flamenco music and dance.

Yinka Esi Graves explores the inseparable link between history and music through a contemporary perspective with an eye on the African diaspora. In her performances and research, bringing to light the contributions of African culture to the creation of flamenco culture is not just a historical rescue, but rather a strategy to confront the whitening of History, challenge the historical erasure of black people and remember their resistance movements. Through her own body and choreography that scrutinises the loss of fear of imperfection, the sense of community, the idea of absence, invisibility and movements of camouflage and mimesis, Yinka Esi Graves reaffirms dance as a space of freedom and self-determination.

Transposition 2, 2024

Performance, approx. 35”

Courtesy of the artist.

Hack, haunt, commune,

hack, haunt, commune,

hack, haunt, commune,

hack, haunt, commune,

transpose the invisibility. 

Make it a dance, on repeat.

Yinka Esi Graves

Transposition 2 is a site-specific performance created for the Biennial’s opening moment, and a work that derives from a desire expressed by Yinka Esi Graves: “Hack, haunt, commune, transpose the invisibility”, “make it a dance, on repeat”. Thinking space with the body becomes a strategy for the artist to relate to historicity and the past’s presence in the present, using a sense of disruption and communion. Continuing to work from the multidisciplinary perspective adopted in her first solo work, The Disappearing Act (2023), the performer and choreographer uses the idea of “invisibility” to imagine ways of remaining in an intermediate space situated between “penumbra” and sudden overexposure, without “letting herself be burnt by the light” — circumventing invisibility. Created specifically for the context of the Biennial and the city of Coimbra, Transposition 2 takes place within the space of the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, in continuity with the “listening to the body” that has established itself as a praxis in the artist’s work.

The following songs were used by the artist during the performance:

— «Gay Guerilla Part I + Part 2», by Jace Clayton (from the album «The Julius Eastman Memory Depot»)

— Excerpt from «Julius Eastman's Spoken Introduction To The Northwestern University Concert», by Julius Eastman (from the album «Unjust Malaise»)

— «Yo soy Seneca en el Saber», by Pepe Marchena