Zero Latitude

“In the video installation Zero Latitude, I would like to emphasize the fictional space that is imagined at the Equator — where the historical figure of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza becomes a fictional stand-in in the narrative that is devised.   

Equatorial Africa becomes the trope for Sub-Saharan Africa on which the popular mythology of the continent is built. And Congo becomes the representation of Africa in the Western imagination. From the earliest written accounts of explorers, to the countless works of film and literature, the Congo River does not only provide a physical point of access to central Africa from the Atlantic, but also an imaginary access to the Western world.

In Zero Latitude, the explorer De Brazza becomes a character or archetype of the explorer. There’s a tension between the real place and the imaginary one, and as you make a connection, you come across others — such as the archetypical character of the explorer, De Brazza, and his cultural and consumable baggage, and tales of the Congo River.

My current practice unfolds from an act of styling, from the ability of being versipellis [capacity of shape-shifting, of transforming oneself or altering one's appearance]. This connects with the logic of illusionism and evokes the histories of trompe l'oeil, the narrative film, and studio photography. Illusionism in my work extends to the realm of fiction, picking up on historical players like De Brazza. 

Pierre Bourdieu describes the notion of 'illusio' as a willingness to collectively participate in the “game” of society — accepting certain power systems and playing along with certain fictions. Through these characters, my recent work highlights these fictions pointing to formal thresholds, whether economic, political, geographical or mythological. By drawing an imaginary line, the threshold, the zero point, the scene is set, and it sanctions the unfolding action that evolves with a broad suite of historical players.” 

Bianca Baldi in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (July 2015)