Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc

Taking inspiration from L’Afrique fantôme — the controversial diary by French surrealist writer Michel Leiris recounting his participation in the ambitious Dakar-Djibouti ethnographic expedition of the 1930s — Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc’s arresting first feature reflects on identity, cultural appropriation, and the transference of memory through objects.

Originally an analog slide show made for two projectors, this work recounts the making of Sarah Maldoror's lost and surely never-to-be-seen first film Guns for Banta.

Taking inspiration from L’Afrique fantôme — the controversial diary by French surrealist writer Michel Leiris recounting his participation in the ambitious Dakar-Djibouti ethnographic expedition of the 1930s — Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc’s arresting first feature reflects on identity, cultural appropriation, and the transference of memory through objects.

Originally an analog slide show made for two projectors, this work recounts the making of Sarah Maldoror's lost and surely never-to-be-seen first film Guns for Banta.