We’ve just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise money for the production of the second version of our project Negus, which will feature the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry.
Here’s the link to the campaign, it started yesterday and will end in 45 days, we have to reach the goal of 7500 € to bring Lee Perry to our hometown Vernsca, a small village located between Milano and Bologna. The shooting is planned already for the second half of March.
Thanks everyone in advance!
INVERNOMUTO
We founded Invernomuto in 2003 and since then we have been working as a duo. We make works without a set format, with an emphasis on the collapse and subsequent mixture of different languages. Our research ranges from the production of single-channel videos and installations to the staging of events and site-specific projects.
www.invernomuto.info
NEGUS – Abstract
The ongoing Negus project is a series of films exploring the metaphor of the Negus and retracing the Jamaican tradition of versioning (creating multiple versions of the same song). The project involves some of the godfathers of dub music and Sound System culture.
Negus was inspired by a historical event dating from the Italian Fascist period: in the colonial era, after the conquest of Abyssinia, effigies of the last Negus of Ethiopia, Hailé Selassié I, were burnt in the square of our hometown Vernasca, a small village located between Milano and Bologna. This episode coincided with the return of one soldier from the colonial war.
Hailé Selassié I became the Black Messiah for the Rastafarian belief, which was – and still is – much diffused in Jamaica, where the Sound System culture was born in the 1950s.
This way, an event that happened a few kilometres from where we were born and raised enters in resonance with a wider cult developed in the opposite side of the planet, something that cannot pass unnoticed.
A first version of Negus, titled Negus – Duppy Conquerors, was recently realized and presented in Bologna in the occasion of Premio Furla 2013. This version summoned the Duppy Conquerors – hunters of malevolent spirits, recurrent figures in Jamaican musical tradition – to seize the square of Vernasca.
NEGUS – LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY
The second version of Negus will features the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry as the master of ceremony. Born in Jamaica and living in Switzerland, Perry is a key-figure within the whole history of music – primarily, but not exclusively, dub and reggae. Lee Perry built his own personal universe of sounds, symbols and attitudes; his deep and private relationship with Rastafarian culture lead us to consider him as the best figure to involve in the project. His impressive qualities of performer play a central role in the work, freely reacting and improvising through our set in Vernasca.
WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY GO?
We are asking for money to let Lee “Scratch” Perry come to Vernasca and fulfill his requests, pay his fee and all the production and logistic costs (equipment, operator, technicians…).
The shooting is already planned for the second half of March, while this campaign will still be running. We trust our funders.
Updates regarding the shooting and the project in general will be released regularly.
Link to Indiegogo campaign: http://igg.me/at/Negus/x/2463807
