INT. NÚCLEO DE ARTE – DAY
FADE IN FROM BLACK
CLEMENT is dressed sharply, as always. He walks from Rua de Argélia into NÚCLEO DE ARTE where the exhibition entitled ‘Ndunagrafia’ is on view. The artist his name is Zacarias Mussindo, but he is known as Nduna. Clement is a stranger in Maputo and has arrived a few days ago specifically to see this show, held from the 18th of June until the 4th of July, 2024. Coincidentally, Jorge, sits on a chair next to the entrance reading a book of Ursula le Guin, The Dispossesed. Jorge looks up to Clement and immediately recognizes him. He puts the book away and gets up to greet Clement.
CLEMENT
Are you the artist?
JORGE
No, I curated the show.
CLEMENT
Can I speak to him?
JORGE
He is not present now, but will be tomorrow, he comes in at around ten, eleven.
CLEMENT
I’ll be going back home tomorrow. Fine, I prefer the source of the work, but sure, I’ll have to speak to you then.
JORGE
Nduna and me have been having various conversations about his work. It is my job to be a bridge between any member of the public, the artworks and the artist. I’m sure I can answer all your questions properly. Some of them better probably.
CLEMENT
Good, give me a moment to actually see the exhibition. I don’t want to hear from you until I call upon you.
JORGE
Fine, you are welcome, Clement.
CLEMENT
Oh, you know who I am?
JORGE
Of course, you are famous, don’t you know that?
CLEMENT
I did not suspect I would be recognized in this part of the world, nor in this time.
JORGE
Well, your essays are like homework to me.
CLEMENT
Oh, I bet (laughs gently). And did you?
JORGE
Yes, but since your work is so influential it is not even necessary to read it. I’m happy I did though.
CLEMENT
(Laughs deeply and loudly)
Oh please!
(Chokes, to then continue laughing)
JORGE
(Smiling)
Sincerely.
Clement walks to a poster on the wall of the gallery and starts reading the curatorial text on it.
JORGE
We’ll talk in a bit, enjoy the show.
CLEMENT
I sincerely hope so.
After reading, Clement strolls through the exhibition, carefully examining each piece as he goes, sometimes touching them carefully and even smelling them. As he does, ROSI walks in the exhibition and immediately turns to Jorge.
ROSI
You look like you speak english, are you the curator?
JORGE
Yes, I am. It’s so nice of you to visit. I was already wondering what you would think about this show.
ROSI
Oh, you surprise me, if you, you, do you, you know who I am? Don’t tell me you have read my books.
JORGE
Some chapters, some essays, and I have seen some lectures on the net. Right now I’m making a painting with your face on it, but that is not relevant now.
ROSI
Is it not? How come?
JORGE
Well, the fact that we are in an exhibition of Nduna’s work, not mines.
ROSI
Fair enough, so let’s get to the point. Why do you want my opinion, how is it relevant to you what a scruffy, retired academic thinks?
JORGE
You have a beautyful voice and speak in an exiting manner. Apart from your philosophical work, just the way you pronounce the words that come out of your big mouth sounds like music to me.
ROSI
No, you just want to flatter me, oh well, better than insults, shall we say. Thanks, you’re not the only one that has said it.
JORGE
Yes, one can tell.
ROSI
What does that mean? What is that look?
JORGE
You flaunt it, anyone sees that.
ROSI
I’m Italian, it’s a thing. Now, I will look at the art.
JORGE
Yes, of course, at your pleasure.
Rosi initiates a thourough investigation into every aspect of the exhibition, taking photos and writing notes in her smartphone.
As Rosi and Clement circulate the exhibition, briefly speak to each other, and continue on their individual paths, MANA comes in and greets Jorge. These two do not speak to each other, but rather they communicate by making gestures and specific facial expressions, subtly, acknowledging that they have two special guests.
Mana points with two fingers of her right hand at her eyes, to then make a circlar motion with just one finger of the same hand, indicating to Jorge that she’s going to view the exhibition herself. Jorge raises his thumb to her and smiles, goes back to sitting on the chair next to the entrance. This time he does not grab the book but a small notebook and a pen. Jorge proceeds to write nervously in his A6-sized booklet, as if he knows that there is little time.
Mana greets both Rosi and Clement, but spends time talking to Clement for a few minutes. He manages to get Mana to laugh various times, clearly making her enjoy his presence.
Rosi approaches Jorge, who by now is done writing.
ROSI
Let’s get a drink, can you get the others?
JORGE
Sure.
Rosi proceeds to the BAR and orders a bottle of wine, meanwhile Jorge grabs on Clement and Mana to join Rosi at a table. Rosi pours them all a glass and they proceed to make a toast. She then begins by directing her speech to Jorge.
ROSI
In the curatorial text you focus on the uniqueness of the material technique of the artworks, do you think it deserves that much attention?
JORGE
Absolutely!
ROSI
Does the artist insist on that or do you as the curator?
JORGE
The artist and generally the public too.
CLEMENT
You described some of the materials used, but not in detail, can you tell me more about what makes the process unique?
JORGE
No, I cannot, the artist insists on keeping it a secret. He even has a patent.
CLEMENT
A patent of what exactly?
JORGE
That I am not going to discuss, as is the wish of Nduna.
MANA
I heard him say it on the DialogArte session, he wants to master his techniques first before handing it out.
JORGE
It also took him a long time to learn it. I imagine he wants to explore it and perhaps even benefit from it.
MANA
He suffered a lot too, he deserves a bit of good luck.
CLEMENT
What can you tell me about his life?
ROSI
Wait, what’s a DialogArte session?
JORGE
It is an event in which we create a conversation between the artist and a live public. We usually have a speaker, this time it was Filemone Meigos. Also, the artist presented a work that was available for auction.
ROSI
Did he answered questions from the public?
JORGE
Yes, he did. The public was made up of mainly colleagues, for your information.
ROSI
Only men?
JORGE
There was one woman, also an artist. And there were two staff members too.
CLEMENT
Now, without telling me anything sensitive, can you speak about Nduna? I need more information, I don’t know what ‘Idai’ means for example, but I am intruigued. Would you be so kind to just brief me a bit on the situation?
ROSI
Idai was a cyclone that hit in 2019. It was a category 4-equivalent cyclone that made landfall near Beira on March the 14th. The cyclone brought devastating winds, heavy rainfall, and a storm surge, causing widespread destruction and catastrophic flooding in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. It was a horrible tragedy for the people. You haven’t been around lately so you couldn’t know.
MANA
The aftermath of Cyclone Idai was bad. It was a full on humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of deaths and hundreds of thousands that had to leave their homes. The flooding, the diseases, food shortages, destruction of crops, eish. And life was already difficult in those regions.
CLEMENT
What a tragedy.
JORGE
One of the districs that fell victim to it was Buzi, where the artist was born.
MANA
Where does he live now?
JORGE
Katembe, on the other side of the bay.
CLEMENT
That’s where his atelier is?
JORGE
Yes, he lives and works by himself on his terrain, since 2016, I believe. The kind of artist that we are dealing with is always with his mind on the work. Besides sculpting he loves to run, always telling me he goes to Boane and back, no matter if his legs hurt. Nduna has written much poetry even though it is all lost. He still wants to make music too.
ROSI
And so why didn’t he? You as a curator should have pushed him into that direction, subtly of course. I don’t know what his temperament is, but, you seem to know enough about art to know that we love such things.
JORGE
I was not there from the beginning of this series, they pulled me in when they started thinking about exhibitions.
ROSI
Who are ‘they’?
CLEMENT
Wait, we are jumping over the essence here, slow down buddy. Focus on the Nduna’s life first, then we want to hear about the series. I think the best, and fastest way, is if you give us a sort chronological —
JORGE
— Yes, I get it. I’m sorry to interrupt you, you’re right, you should have some background, it’s that kind of a series.
Rosi orders chamussas from one of the waiters. Jorge waits until she’s done.
JORGE
He was born around 1964, as I said, in Buzi. His father worked in sugar cane production and as a warehouse guard. His mother stayed at home.
CLEMENT
What do you mean, ‘around’?
JORGE
His parents did not register him right away. It wasn’t high on their list of priorities, if you will.
CLEMENT
Why not?
ROSI
In that time this country was still under colonial rule, right?
MANA
Yes, it lasted until 1975.
CLEMENT
I imagine there was a harsh treatment they would be subjected to?
JORGE
Yes, that’s a story on its own really, again, let’s stick to the subject.
ROSI
Agreed.
And so, 1964, continue.
JORGE
Yes, to illustrate the living conditions let me give you an example. He had to repeat the 7th grade of school because they lived at such a big distance that he ended up missing a lot of classes, resulting in poor grades. That was in the early eighties when he was living in Manga with his older brother. He wanted to continue learning, being in the 10th grade, but the civil war was happening, meaning that the military was recruiting. He went on a course to become a priest in Maputo, partly to evade military duty, but after a year or two he left to Beira. Now around ’85, the military was recruiting people of the streets, literally just plucking them, selecting at will. I even heard that around that time they would go to a discobar and just collect a few unsuspecting citizens. To then have them be part of the military, on the battlefied. Some family members just disappeared for years or even decades. Others never returned.
ROSI
I have so many things to say about that, we’ll keep that in the back of our minds.
CLEMENT
Yes, but I also need to understand the historical context. So, it’s good that you make short detours like that.
ROSI
Proceed.
MANA
(Smiles)
JORGE
He went back to Maputo to continue school, while living with an uncle. He had difficulty enrolling in a institute for higher education. Meanwhile, Samora Machel died, this was in 1986. In that time Nduna was making and selling electrical transformers, I think.
MANA
That we used for the chirico?
JORGE
Yes.
MANA
Nevermind that, it’s just a detail, go on.
JORGE
He ended up doing an hydroelectricity course, which he terminated in 1990. He then is sent to Korumana, later goes to Cuamba, then via Maputo ends up in Niassa. There he meets the woman that becomes his wife, they go back to Maputo, by now it’s 1991.
CLEMENT
Was he already making art?
JORGE
In ’83-84 he was making drawings on cardboard, reproductions of cigarette packets. It was when he was in Maputo again, accompanied by his better half, that he, unemployed, started to dedicate himself to painting. He was selling on the street, at Baixa, the restaurant called Continental here in Polana, because of that he ended up in Casa da Cultura. That was his first group-exhibition, in which he sold all seven pieces. The man who purchased them wanted to know about him, and went after Nduna. In 1992 he was painting for a collector, and in that year his oldest son is born. They were living in harsh conditions even if Nduna’s career was going upwards. They moved to Matola, Fomento, close to Chissano’s house, the sculptor.
ROSI
Where do I know that name from?
MANA
No, that’s another distraction, many people have that name here, move on.
ROSI
Okay, I’m in your hands.
JORGE
Agreed.
He worked with Chissano for a while, and in my notes I remarked that he didn’t want to live far away from the city, in the bush, so to speak. Chissano came to a tragic end, which is a can of worms we shouldn’t open.
MANA
Please don’t, eish.
CLEMENT
That specific can does not apply to Nduna.
JORGE
His daughter was born in 1994, he moved to Liberdade before that. In this time he’s still painting. He descibed it as the era of ONUMOZ, that seems to have left a deep impact on him. It was in this time that, via the French embassy, he went on a two-year trip to France, and was shown what I would label the French School.
CLEMENT
Is that your interpretation or did he state that verbatim.
JORGE
He is the one who always mentions Picasso, Braque, Rodin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Dalí, Miro, especially because the former had an overview exhibition at that time in a big museum he went to.
CLEMENT
Your label, ‘French School’, is not correct.
JORGE
I know, I ask for your forgiveness, and hereby apply for your permission to use it in the rest of our conversation.
ROSI
Oh you’re such a slickbag, stop it.
MANA
(Laughs)
CLEMENT
Permission granted, as long as you never use the word ‘Formalism’.
ROSI
Brilliant!
JORGE
(Laughs)
The waiter serves the chamussas Rosi ordered.
ROSI
Please, serve yourselves, I won’t be able to finish it all by myself.
MANA
Thank you.
JORGE
Cheers.
Nduna says that the trip to France was good because it offered a chance to see what the great ones had done.
MANA
Who is his favourite?
JORGE
I believe it is Picasso.
ROSI
Oh really? Not something more contemporary?
JORGE
He himself is the contemporary one.
THREE SECONDS OF SILENCE.
ROSI
I beg your pardon?
CLEMENT
I believe that was a sort of joke.
JORGE
Sort of, more or less, specifically vague, and maybe randomly accurate, probably in nuance precise.
ROSI
What was that?
CLEMENT
It’s an artist’ feature.
ROSI
Or is it a bug?
MANA
I think it’s a feature.
JORGE
Then let’s just go for that, thank you.
Now, we come to a point that is interesting to put forward to you three. Picasso is not contemporary, whatever that means, but Duchamp is also not. Yes, I know what you’re going to say, the Duchampian line of work is the dominant factor of Art in our time. You would be right to say that, but for Maputo it is different. The anti-art vibe didn’t really caught on like the painterly vibe.
ROSI
Yes, I noticed that.
CLEMENT
Are you saying that Duchamp has not left a mark in the local Art-scene?
JORGE
No, what I’m trying to say is that Picasso has a far greater influence on current Maputo artists than Duchamp. The contemporary artists are undoubtly that, but their vision and affect to Modernism is different. Subsequently their Post-modernist tendency is also different.
CLEMENT
I see, you’re describing an alternative branch of Modernism.
MANA
Can someone translate that for me?
ROSI
It’s a good thing to have someone at this table that doesn’t know art-speak. At least we have chance to have a normal conversation with these two men here.
CLEMENT
(Laughs)
JORGE
I am not offended by that.
(Laughs)
ROSI
Oh, so I should try harder?
CLEMENT
Oh boy.
JORGE
(Laughs)
ROSI
Garçon, another bottle!
JORGE
Oh boy indeed.
MANA
(Laughs)
ROSI
Yes, so, the pictorial and sentimental perspective of the artist is refreshing and indeed, unlike the philosophical cynicysm of Duchamp.
JORGE
I am surprised that you would use that vocabulary to interpret Duchamp. Though, I think I must aggree with it, since I know a bit of Art history. I must say though, there is lot of work made in Maputo by the means of found objects, recycling and used materials. So, there is a latent shadow of Duchamp, more or less.
ROSI
Am not sure one should attribute it to Duchamp.
JORGE
Yea, you’re right about that.
CLEMENT
But still, there is a lot of very interesting work being made in that mode of Art, right? You can’t say that of Realism in painting.
JORGE
Really? Things have changed in the last twenty years.
MANA
We have seen many pieces with recycled material, really, a lot.
ROSI
We’ve seen a lot of paintings too.
CLEMENT
Whatever that means.
ROSI
It is relevant, because it helps to define something by stating what it is not.
JORGE
Yes, also because I have the feeling that sometimes we lack the terms to decribe what is really going on here with Nduna.
TWO SECONDS OF SILENCE
ROSI
My favorite piece of the show is the self-portrait.
CLEMENT
That is the mirror, the small one.
MANA
I also loved that one!
CLEMENT
So, that big red relief, is an hommage to the victims of the cyclone? We are looking at a moment in the disaster when people hold on to their dear lives, am I right?
JORGE
Correct. That piece is called ‘Tentativas de sobrevivência’/ ‘Attempts at survival’.
ROSI
It is unusal that an artist chooses such an horrific subject for a piece of that size. And it probably weighs a lot too.
MANA
They were carrying it with four to five men.
JORGE
A friend told me that the red one makes her think of Picasso’s Guernica.
MANA
Ha! I didn’t want to say that out loud, but yes. Is it not offensive to say that it looks like another artist’ work?
JORGE
No, just be subtle, it depends. In this case it is not. Picasso’s piece itself is also compared to earlier Historical paintings that were not Cubist at all.
CLEMENT
Another interesting aspect is that the piece looks like a painting but is a sculpture. His background in what you label the French School is visible in the series. As an object it has a strong optical effect beyond its meaning.
ROSI
Let me pick up where we left off before, I think this is a good moment. What we are seeing is an artist that uses the vocabulary of this so called French School, basically pre-Second World War Paris, hmmm? But just as a jazz-musician may study Miles Davis to learn a few tricks, that doesn’t mean that his work is just a cheap imitation of the original.
CLEMENT
I was not suggesting that in the slightest.
JORGE
Nobody said you did.
MANA
Is it fair to compare him to all these big names?
ROSI
Thank you for that question.
CLEMENT
Nduna’s work is definitely not commercial, nor does it appeal to a mass culture. It focuses on a shared humanity, the piece becomes timeless because of that. Nduna achieves it by his technical skill to visualize it in form and composition. The big red one is an impressive piece.
ROSI
More than that it elevates their suffering to the realm of an universal message for humanity. Their drama can become part of the collective memory through its materialization in Art.
CLEMENT
I do not agree with that, the piece can stand on its own without the title, or the context of Idai.
ROSI
But removing its context is removing a big part of its meaning, and thus its relevance.
CLEMENT
If you surround the work with a silence its true music will be audible to the senses.
JORGE
I tried to present his work in that manner in this show. These are the kind of reliefs that need space to breathe.
ROSI
But you do not have to explain the context to these people, here everybody knows, the title is enough.
CLEMENT
I do agree that the narrative of tragedy is appropriate and good. But it is not necessary, that’s all I’m saying. It is a good artwork without it, and we can say that Idai adds the social dimension to it. And since the artist chose to give that title, it is an elemental aspect of the work.
MANA
But that sounds so cold.
JORGE
He is right though.
ROSI
Going back to that point of earlier. His visual vocabulary is that of a painterly relief.
CLEMENT
Is that a category nowadays?
ROSI
I am making it up as I go.
MANA
Is that how art-speak works?
JORGE
(Bursts out in laughter)
ROSI
(Laughs)
Oh, stop it.
CLEMENT
The notion of it looking like something else is wrong, we are the ones that lack the proper terms to describe what we see.
JORGE
No, reliefs always sort of look like a painting and sculpture at the same time. They are literally something inbetween. Most of the masters Nduna learned from also dabbled in sculpture or had a focus on it. Rodin and Chissano were both sculptors.
CLEMENT
I notice that you like to label things, you seem to want to grasp it by naming it.
JORGE
We already concluded that aspect is a feature.
MANA
Now I am not so sure anymore.
CLEMENT
(Laughs)
ROSI
Why did he made the switch? Why go from something so light as paint to something as heavy as cement and steel? Why not poetry or music?
JORGE
He lost all his poems, had enough to publish a book he said.
MANA
Such a shame.
JORGE
There’s much about his life he doesn’t want to speak about.
MANA
That has to do with our culture.
JORGE
There’s probably more to it than that.
MANA
Yes, we know.
ROSI
In how far is his work from here? Is he traditional, or not? It’s difficult for me to see that.
JORGE
There is a general understanding that stylization in drawing and sculpture is the traditional African aesthetic. In that aspect, yes, he does represent a sort of Maputo School. But he’s not a traditionalist at all. I have the idea that he’s quite progressive in terms of Art. It’s just that he is familiar with certain, let’s say, genres of Art.
MANA
What do you mean?
CLEMENT
There goes your unfortunate labeling again.
ROSI
It’s a compulsive feature, hhmmm?
JORGE
Spare me you two. But no, really yes.
I interviewed him various times, in one session we spoke about the various movements of the twentieth century. He seemed to have a very open mind and an adventurous spirit, complete with a child-like curiosity. On another session I had an Art history book with me of the twentieth century. He was sincerely interested in everything, but one does not absorb three hundred pages in an afternoon during a conversation. And so he, as would anyone do, went looking for the familiar names.
CLEMENT
When are you going to give him a few Art books?
JORGE
Oh, ah.
ROSI
Don’t be rude Clement.
CLEMENT
You’re right, you should do that.
JORGE
Yes Rosi, what he said.
ROSI
(Laughs)
CLEMENT
You’re kidding right?
JORGE
I’m not, and neither is she, nor are you.
MANA
What?
ROSI
We’re at it again.
MANA
The solution is for all three of you to give him a book.
FOUR SECONDS OF SILENCE
ROSI
He should choose himself, we shouldn’t push him too much with our individual taste. I don’t want to taint him.
JORGE
Same for me.
CLEMENT
This may be a problem.
MANA
Can you continue about his life? You weren’t done yet.
JORGE
Ah, you’re right! Where were we?
MANA
Around the time of ONUMOZ.
JORGE
From 1996 to 2010 he has been collecting the experience, developing the technique and honing the skills he has showcased now with these series. In this time he has also been writing his poetry that poetically got lost in time.
ROSI
Try to keep a lid on it.
JORGE
I am.
MANA
(Laughs)
CLEMENT
And so, he also uses the vocabulary of these experiences in the works.
JORGE
You can say that, definitely, see, after his course he went on working in a car-repair where he was an assistant. He learned working with resin, cement, fiber, electricity, all through the practice of it.
CLEMENT
I find this far more relevant to his Art then the influence of your French School.
JORGE
Mine?
MANA
(Laughs)
ROSI
Maybe, but you cannot separate one thing from the other. More then in the past; globalization has become the norm, the new standard.
CLEMENT
What does that have to do with anything? He uses contruction materials to make his work, not Cubism or Fauvism, that optical smilarity is just that. We are the ones that call upon those Art-historical terms to understand Nduna’s work. It’s not Nduna who uses those aesthetics as a crutch.
ROSI
But you cannot reduce his encounter with the French School to a minumum. All over the world artists have to relate to it. Sometimes they were forced into it.
MANA
What?
ROSI
Yes, it could be compulsory to adopt a specific style of Art.
JORGE
That is the idea of an academy.
ROSI
No, you can’t say that. Nowadays it’s much more free. You have been to an academy, where you not free there?
JORGE
Yes and no. For example, I was discouraged to make the kind of paintings I make now, but I was encouraged to do performance and video. Post-conceptualism was the unquestionable norm. These were the days after the wave of Institutional Critique.
ROSI
So, if I understand it right, what was once a rebellion against the academy became the academy?
JORGE
Yes, the academy itself became anti-academic.
CELEMENT
Yes, I predicted that.
ROSI
Interesting.
TWO SECONDS OF SILENCE
JORGE
During colonial times there were native Mozambicans being educated in the Arts. These were the so called assimilated ones. Nduna, was not part of that, but, those who were knew about Modernism and its various adeventures. Though I am not sure in how far they were aware of the shift to New York that had been happening after the Second World War.
CLEMENT
How has that impacted the Art here?
JORGE
Not that much I would say. Pop Art is more relevant here, I think. Also, you haven’t been around, so you may have missed the relevance of the Performative Turn. And, one should not forget the impact of digital technology.
ROSI
And how has that rupture been felt here? Of Pop-Art?
JORGE
In that time Mozambique was still a very young country, art was really not one of its priorities.
CLEMENT
How does Nduna get the material?
JORGE
He has a producer that has been helping him in that aspect. Not a gallerist, but someone who believes in his work and wants to push his career forward. It was this man that apprached me to do the curating. They had been working together for three to four years before they spoke to me about the project.
ROSI
So, what is this project then? How would you describe it?
THREE SECONDS OF SILENCE
JORGE
It may sound a bit weird, but, it’s about trying to remedy a social trauma. This is based on the artist’ intention, the serie is a sort of healing session. Nduna compared it to music, the notes and melodies do not have to mean anything to soothe our pain. Also, similar to jazz, the artist gives space for the public to interpret the work at will. He wants the work to speak directly to the public, without his interference, let’s say. He spoke about that during the DialogArte session.
MANA
I remember.
JORGE
What I think he means by that is the following. When looking at a Warhol or Duchamp, the first aspect about it is the artist. Before one sees the work, one has to see the artist first. Nduna wants people to see the work only, so that whatever happens is between the public and the work. Similar to not knowing about Miles Davis but ejoying his music very much, in my own way.
MANA
Those ‘Symphonies’ are like that, am I right?
ROSI
Yes, you are. He sampled a few bio-forms from the sea and made a composition with it. His identity is irrelevant for my experience as a viewer, okay. It works.
JORGE
That’s what I didn’t like about Warhol at first. The artist takes precedence over the artwork. It is as if the aritst stands between the work and the public. Warhol sometimes blocks the view to a Warhol-piece. But Nduna never stands in the way of a Nduna-piece.
MANA
Well said.
JORGE
I got my moments.
CLEMENT
There’s a ‘Symphony of Idai’ in the show if I recall correctly.
JORGE
You do.
CLEMENT
So we can say that is a composition, in mineur, about a fisher’s boat during Idai, being washed away by the waves.
ROSI
The idea of Art as an healing session appeals to me. It is an interesting way to deal with social trauma.
MANA
I find it beautyful that he mixes the traditional and contemporary. He’s a healer, a Curandeiro, of course not really, but, euhm, I don’t know how to say this.
ROSI
He takes the concept of a traditional healer and applies it to Art. Also he synthesizes it with the archetype of a musician, even though he makes sculptures.
CLEMENT
.. That look like paintings.
JORGE
.. But are heavier than cement.
MANA
So, he makes healing-music sculptures.
JORGE
That’s a mouth full.
CLEMENT
Can you explain me more of what this kind of traditional healer is?
JORGE
The native Americans, or however you say that nowadays, have their Shaman, that is basically the same.
CLEMENT
I see, don’t they call that a witchdoctor?
JORGE
Am not sure, that sounds so weird.
ROSI
(Laughs)
MICHELE arrives at the table, greets Jorge and Mana specifically, and then the other two.
JORGE
We are talking about the exhibition, care to join us?
MICHELE
(Looking at Rosi and Clement)
Do you guys mind?
MANA
Please Michele, you are part of it. What would the show be without you?
Michele gives Rosi and Clement a hand and introduces himself, grabs a chair from another table and sits down.
MICHELE
I don’t want to be rude to our guests. And I prefer to be in the background.
ROSI
Oh, I see. Garçon, another one!
MICHELE
(Laughs)
JORGE
What he’s saying is —
ROSI
— I know.
FADE TO BLACK