Pepper’s Ghost 1

As part of The Centre for the Less Good Idea's residency at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain.

Named after John Henry Pepper who popularised it in 1862, the Pepper’s Ghost is a 19th-century theatrical illusion technique that uses a half-silvered mirror and lighting techniques to bring forth ghosts and apparitions on stage. The Pepper’s Ghost has become a device that’s central to many of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s key processes and methodologies for generating new collaborative and interdisciplinary work. Led by Bronwyn Lace, the Pepper’s Ghost workshopping & programmes feature the central theme of Activating the Archive, and use the hybrid analogue-digital mechanism to experiment with new ways of reading, speaking back to, and inhabiting archival material. Here, myriad sounds, gestures, and materials became tools for layering, agitating, rescripting and expanding upon the people, places, landscapes, rituals and knowledge systems represented in the images and films.

Performers | Angelo Moustapha, Micca Manganye, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Sbusiso Shozi, Anathi Conjwa, Dikeledi Modubu, Asanda Hanabe, Teresa Phuti Mojela, Vusi Mdoyi, Katlego Letsholonyana, Tony Miyambo, Christine Barthe, Marcus Neustetter & Anna Seiderer
Footnoters | Bronwyn Lace & Pélagie Gbaguidi