“What happens when we remember that the land wants nothing more than to be in a deep and powerful relationship with us?” – Sonya Renee Taylor

The Land wants Us back is an interdisciplinary exploration of colonial legacies symbolised by the ‘lawn’ by artist Thulani Rachia. The day explores Bantu spatial practices and brings Rachia’s research together through capoeira workshops, performance excerpts, and discussions.

The colonial grass lawn is a plane of violence. This project repositions the lawnmower as a symbol of destruction – a “death machine” representing the death of wildness, nature, and Indigenous life and culture.

Central to the project is an operatic chorus which draws on iGwijo hymn traditions and transforms the mower’s mechanical roar into collective invocation. The movement is inspired by Aú – capoeira’s inversions – upside-down, ancestral, a vision of another world. Together these Bantu orientations of space and time urgently prioritise rerouting and restructuring within and beyond.

The day brings these ideas together through a capoeira workshop, performance excerpt, and discussion.

Thulani First worked with Hospitalfield on the 2023/24 Future Plan Residency and has since returned to Hospitalfield for further periods of research . We are excited to be working with him again on bringing this next stage in his research together.

Tickets £10-£20
4 bursary places with contribution towards travel are available for those facing barriers to attending, first come first served, email programme@hospitalfield.org.uk to request.

All tickets include communal lunch and dinner.

Find out more and book your place.