wani toaishara
“a most beautiful experiment”

The following is the transcript from a most beautiful experiment, a new film by wani toaishara, commissioned by West Space.

part of the paradox is that, you know
that the ordinary is constituted by
stuff that is so
terrible and
impossible to bear, and yet
in that context
people
make things happen
right
they continue to act
and to
produce
but I think
I want to keep those two things in tensions
both the kind of
the terror and the opening
what does it mean to kind of
to try to
experiment with living
in the context of a world that is in so many ways
uninhabitable
what does it mean to kind of
to try to
experiment with living
in the context of a world that is in so many ways
uninhabitable
The images have been lost
The voice still remains
We have known ironies, insults,
we have had to submit to beatings,
morning, noon and night…
because we were negroes.
A black was always addressed
in the familiar form,
certainly not as a friend,
but because the respectful form of
address was reserved for the whites.
A large projection of a figure standing from the waist up. The film is in Black and White
wani toaishara, 'a most beautiful experiment', 2024, installation view, West Space, Collingwood Yards. Photograph by Janelle Low.

wani toaishara: a most beautiful experiment is a West Space Commission presented 2 Mar → 11 May 2024 in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria for PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography. Supported by Centre for Projection Art.

wani toaishara is a Congolese artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. Across photography, performance, installation and film, wani's practice explores Black life and representation, dislocation and Indigeneity as well as the effects of colonialism on Africa and its diaspora, often using his personal history to create intimate and personal works. The use of urban spaces in his films is significant in the way he transforms banal spaces into dramatic stages for exploration and reflection.