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log entries by dirk cieslak |
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 19/06/2003
A parcel from Miss Dentzminger
Thank you. I got yesterday a parcel from miss dentzminger with some artwork in it. I just open it a little bit because I would like to documentary the full opening of that parcel with Niels and a camera. He is busy because he has a premiere next Sunday. Monday will be the day and then we all can share that moment. I can not wait.
by dirk cieslak,
berlin
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12/05/2003
Lollywood: Mutation Garage Production, Lagos/Nigeria (MGP)
MGP Lagos got founded on a initial meeting on Friday morning the 9th at the Mainland Hotel in Ebute Meta by Makinde Adeniran, Niji Akanni, Olakunle Dada and Kabat Esosa Egbon in collaboration with Dirk Cieslak and Pierre Bazin. Coordinator became Ejiro Obuks-Edenya.
We agreed to produce a digital video movie for the mutation project in February 2004 instead of a theatre performance. We believe that a video fit much better to the cultural environment of Lagos and Nigeria. Lagos is home of the Nigerian home movie industry who dominate the West African movie market. The area of Surelere in Lagos is called Lollywood. Our new partners from Lagos have experiences as writers, directors and actors in the home movie industry. Niji Akanni was trained as movie director in Bollywood, Bombay/India.
Together we set up a time mode, a work schema how we go to develop the project and in what way we go to produce/post produce in February 2004 in Lagos. To get a working arrangement was not easy and some risk is involved because of extreme thin budget we have today. We have to spend all the money that was supposed to bring the Nigerian artist to Germany for the final production in Lagos. It is now one of our main priorities to open other resources getting these guys in 2004 to Europe.
Shortly before we left to the airport we went to the France cultural institute MAISON DE FRANCE to meet Director Joel Bertrand a second time to present results of our groundwork in Lagos. Mr. Bertrand offered to host our project at Maison de France. After get wracked with the project on the iceberg of the German Goethe Institute in Lagos we are double grateful for the offering of these support and cooperation.
In spite of the fact the Heinrich Boell Foundation is not doing work on the culture sector, the Director of the Lagos branch, Dr. Axel Harneit-Sievers, offered us well further support for our project.
Special Thanks for the patience, support and engagement to the following people: Toyin Akinosho scientist and writer who gave us some Lagos inside. Jahman Oladejo Anikuapo, Editor of Sunday Guardian Newspaper, Greg Obong-Oshotse Editor and Sola Balogun and Agahta Edo from Daily Independent, McPhilips Nwachukwu, Ass. Arts Editor/Head Literary Desk Vanguard newspaper. The writer Toni Kan and Terhemen Agbedeh. Kunle Tejveso from Glendora. The musician Tunde Kuboye (Jazz38). Chike Nwagbogu from Nimbus Art Centre. Mr. Barrot from the France Embassy and...
I beg for mercy not to name all the people who showed so much interest for our project and supported our groundwork to establish MUTATION in Lagos. Our little global network is complied now. by dirk cieslak,
berlin
 vanguard press about mutation lagos 15.05.2003
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06/05/2003
lagos nigeria 2
It is hot. I am cooking in my own water. We make some progress here. The side get filed with writers from Lagos. Meet a guy in these Cybercafe while the power was down. Start talking about MUTATION. Now he has already a guest log in and is writing his first commend to some article from shanghai. Some times things are surprisingly easy here. Tomorrow we have audition day, Thursday we do presswork, go to see a shakespeare adaption in a high school, buying nigerian homemovies and going ready for a initial meeting on friday morning with our collaborates. Everything goes in a direction of producing a video here in Lagos. All remainds me of the making of our production Africa in the Tacheles 4.floor in january in the Tacheles in Berlin. No heating. Starting with cleaning the floor by myself on my birthday and giving blankets and hot tea with rum to the audience to keep them warm trough the performance. Now we are on the way to the National Theatre, meeting actors. Thanks to Makinde who arranged it. He is one of the few poeple in Nigera who can make his living with theatre. By the way, the national theatre is a huge place. Closed most of the year. So we meet just oposite were you find some stalls selling drings and food... by dirk cieslak,
berlin
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05/05/2003
Lagos, Nigeria
Pierre Bazin and Dirk Cieslak arrived on March 28th in Lagos to do the ground work for the project. Thanks to Joel Onwughalu, the driver of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung, who picked us up at the airport, we arrived safely to the Mainland hotel in Ebute Metta, the old centre of Lagos in the 60's and the 70's before Victoria Island and Lagos Island. Ebute Metta is a neglected area, but it is still incredibly busy and overcrowded. Full of tension. Constant movements of bodies, motorbikes, cars and busses. The Mainland Hotel in the middle of all this chaos is an Oasis. Tuesday we did the first steps into the city. Thanks to Dr Axel Harneit-Sievers, Funmi and all the staff of the Boell Fondation for their helping hands ! Getting a local Sim card for a pre-paid access to the local cell phone network was our priority, and not the easiest. Somehow we could rent one for a reasonable price at the most expensive hotel in Lagos, the Eko Hotel. Without a cell phone in Lagos, you can't do anything in Lagos. Wednesday we started networking with visiting first Monsieur Bertrand, the director of the Maison de France; Mrs Obozuwa, the arts manager of the British Council; Mr Barrot, the regional audiovisual attache at the French embassy; Chike Nwagbogu, creative director of the Nimbus Art Centre. All this people provided us with long lists of people in Lagos to contact. Already we brought a bunch of people with very different backgrounds together to become writer on the workspace. Thursday - we spent our worker's day with the professionals of the film industry in Lagos. Of course we met all the stars ! We met later Tunde Kuboye a famous Nigerian musician, he took us on Friday to Lekki on the Victoria Island to show us his culture project Jazz 38. Saturday we had to spend most of the day inside the hotel because of the movement restriction from 08:00 am to 06:00 pm in the whole country. The Nigerians had to elect their state assembly ! These restrictions make sense. Without stopping the movements in the city you could not have election because there would be no space to put the tents on the streets for the poll boxes.
In the morning we walked a bit around the area through the empty streets, talked to some people. On the way back, nearly in front of the hotel a young guy started to shout at us : "I will choop your meat". We went inside - fast. Spending the rest of the day calling people, promoting our project. by dirk cieslak,
berlin
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