Anne Zanele Mutema - Ranezuro Rangu Ngariziye (My Yesterday should Know)

We are raised to believe in certainties. Our education relies on certitude. 2+2 = 4, always, we are told. February follows January, dry season follows the rain, sixty minutes always makes an hour. We are also taught to believe in certain immutable value – rights and wrongs, the good and the evil. Then real life comes in and we are taught to be realistic, which means, starting with our values. These “realistic’ shades of grey, are less about nuance and more about compromise, less about engaging with complexity and more about cognitive dissonance.
 
Challenged by the world toward ambiguity but raised to crave certainty we are often left disempowered and open to suggestion, thereby becoming pliable subjects of religious, commercialand political manipulation.
 
The world today is dominated by uncertainty and flux - climate change, population movements, cultural and moral shifts. In the anxiety generated by this unpredictability and the perceived collapse of order, we are also witnessing the rise of reactionary and destructive forces proclaiming to be forces of truth reality and stability – personal and global.
 
Stepping back in time has multiple temptations, the question is what time and whose time. In Ranezuro Rangu Ngariziye, Mutema wants to separate us from our preconceptions of time, self and memory, to let us focus on singularity of our physical experiences; to question our perceived truths and to rather remember our true selves. In creating conceptual paradigms which sabotage the supremacy of mere intellect, she opens up the space for multiple experiences, plurality of engagement and a syncretic understanding of the world where coexistence of complex realities with multiple entry points and conceptions are not only possible to imagine but also to live with.
 
The yesterday Mutema is asking us to reach for is one we once believed but also one that might precede our engagement with the physical world. The sensory purities and isolations of the pods in Ranenzuro hark to the pre-memory of pre-existence of being in utero and even earlier. It calls on us to connect with our innate humanity and purpose and a freedom we are born to exercise. What we do with that purpose is our own freedom. In RanezuroMutema gives us the gift of space to remember that.

Instructions
Please remove your shoes by the door and get a plastic bag containing a pair of shoe bags and a mutton cloth to wipe your feet with and the plastic will serve as a carrier bag for your shoes.
 
Once you have covered your feet with the small plastic shoes bags then you can proceed to either the black room or the white room.

 …single entry is recommended for first time experience so as one to fully connect with the elements and the work…

Black Room
There are 7 cubicles inside – each has an identical experience. One person per cubicle.

• Wait a couple of seconds for eyes to adjust to the dark
• Once your eyes adjust proceed around the room using the sense of touch to feel where a cubicle is
• Once you identify the opening and open the curtain a light automatically switches on
• Get inside cubicle, step into the water whilst shoe bags are still covering feet/worn
• Put headphones on
• Relax and connect

 
White Room
There are two openings each can be an exit or an entrance depending on where the person is coming from or going.

One person per pod at any one time.

Each pod explores a different sensory experience. The map provides a guide to the type of sense engaged.
 
Open the lace, get inside
 
Experience and connect
 
Move from pod to pod in any order you wish, as long as that pod is available.

Valerie Kabov
©2022

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