The Fondation Taurus prize for visual arts is awarded every two years to a contemporary artist by a committee of professionals from a chosen region. In 2023 the committee, made up of Xavier Franceschi, Juana Macari, Prisca Meslier and Antoine Viviani, awarded the prize to the artist Ufuoma Essi for the Nebbiu region in Corsica. Ufuoma Essi is a filmmaker and artist based in South East London.She works predominantly with film and moving image as well as installation and sound. Her work revolves around Black feminist epistemology and the configuration of displaced histories. Her films have been screened and exhibited at film festivals, institutions and galleries both nationally and internationally including Gasworks, Lisson Gallery, South London Gallery, Centre National d'Art Contemporain (CNAC), Criterion Collection and LUX... « Religion and performance histories has been a recurring theme in my previous works and it’s a recurring focus of my research. My latest project and film “Is My Living In Vain” (2022), is a meditation on the continuing history and emancipatory potential of the Black church as a space of diasporic belonging, affirmation and community organising. Weaving together archival imagery, oral histories and 16mm shot footage on location. »
During her residency, she conducted research and began filming for her movie Les Chœurs du Nebbio, which explores France’s colonial legacy in Corsica and examines the role of language and religion in sustaining forms of cultural domination.
She weaves fictional narratives, polyphonic singing traditions, and 16mm footage shot on location, primarily in Saint-Florent, drawing inspiration from Mary Lou Williams’ Black Christ of the Andes, Corsican religious festivals, and the sound histories of the Nebbiu region and beyond.
« Every August the festival of Assomption de Marie takes place throughout the island of Corsica. It is a major feast day in the Corsican calendar with many church masses and street processions.
I’m fascinated in working on a project exploring my interests in religion, film, sonic and performance histories. Corsica is known musically for its polyphonic choral tradition. The film would explore forms of sacred music, hymns and Mass settings in relationship to the history of the Cathedral of Saint-Florent and the founding of the cathedral that was dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The film would aim to examine the relationship to religion, music as well as the surrounding landscapes and the performativity within religious processions. The film would be ambitious in its scope and be filmed across the island on 16 and 35mm film. »
Her film will be presented at the Centre Una Volta in Bastia as part of a dedicated exhibition starting in January 2025, before traveling to the Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle in Switzerland, in partnership with FRAC Corsica and the Taurus Foundation in Switzerland.
