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Brendan Fernandes: Mog Asundi

 Mog Asundi is a multipart performance by Kenyan-Canadian artist, Brendan Fernandes. The performance took place in Panjim as part of the fourth edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival. The work consisted of a series of posters, t-shirts, and other multiples featuring the affectionate  Komkani greeting: Mog Asundi, which means “let there be love (between us). The multiples feature this message translated into five scripts: Devanagiri, Roman, Kannada, Malayalam and Perso-Arabic.

Accompanying these multiples was a series of unannounced dance performances by dancers of the Goa Dance Residency. The performances were based on a choreography by Fernandes that emphasised group improvisation and flocking in order to highlight the agency and collectivity of the dancers. Their creativity and their relationships with one another were a key part of the performances, charging them with social solidarity. The performances took place at key locations, often marked by wheat-pasted compositions of the posters, such as the Adil Shah palace on the Panjim waterfront. Both the choreography, the printed material and the locations worked together to highlight the multilayeredness of Goan identity – Fernandes himself being a part of the Goan diaspora in Kenya, Canada and now in the United States. Mog Asundi, with its collective gestures and collective scripts, reflected this multilayeredness all the while calling for audiences to embrace love between and across differences.

 












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