Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

As we collectively watch a remarkable display of the hubris of western civilisation snuff out the flames of reason faster than it has the lives and futures of children, it is difficult to resist the urge to speak out, to make statements, to know what to say, to take a position, to know what to do. If I was an activist I would have my boots on the ground. I am often jealous of their ability to take clear, visible, documentable action. But as compelling as it is to act now, I am grateful for the opportunity to come to Headlands to pause, to be in nature where real life begins and ends, to harness the wisdom of silence and the guidance of the trees and to let my pain generate future directions, future postures, future worlds. It is a privilege to have a body and an even greater privilege to have the time to be in it, to think with it as I make this new work, which is very much about embodiment and which looks towards the neck down as a mode of enquiry about the things I care about – divine liberation, ritual, care, repair and ubuntu. I live with a group of words that I take with me everywhere, especially at the dawn of a new project:

There is a way out of the conditions we find ourselves in.
We are in a process.
What is this process about?
And where are we in the process?
A lot has happened.
This is a long process
and it is still going to be a very long process.

Milisuthando Bongela-Davis

While At Headlands

My time at Headlands will be spent working on the script development of two projects I’m working on at the moment. I’ve had to pivot from my original idea for The Dinner based on unfolding world events including the wars in the Middle East, the publishing of the Epstein Files and how these will affect Africa. I realise that discussions on race are always needed as long as racism exists, but something about the headiness, the intellectual basis of the dialogue feels slightly off tempo for a western world that I feel is talking too much, thinking too much, “knowing” too much and yet NOT UNDERSTANDING ANYTHING about the world. I want to carry some of the essence of the dialogue in The Dinner into the other work holding the following question: What kind of world are we about to enter into in the next four years and what is the role of art in the death and birth of the old and the new worlds? I have a feature film that I’ve been slowly developing (research and writing). At Headlands I will be writing out the 35 scenes I have for that, trying to create an order and a distillation process that after a month, should be the first draft of the film. This project is called MAMAKHO. My process involves revisiting my research notes, rereading some of the texts I have been working with (5 books that I will have with me), handwriting and drawing the scenes before typing them out into script format. The writing and the reading happen in tandem. I know exactly what I want to say but I have no idea how I’m going to say it yet. My time at Headlands will be spent discovering this. My process involves taking a walk after I wake up, having some food, working for 3 hours, taking lunch, having a nap or socialising in the afternoon while making draft notes not at my desk, having dinner and then working for 4 hours or until I am finished with a particular problem late into the evening. If I sleep late, I allow myself time to wake up late. The early hours are my most generative time, between 3 am and 7am or between 9pm and 2am. On Wednesdays I make phone calls with my friends and family and on Sundays I rest and put down any to do list and do whatever I feel like doing. I do a Feldenkrais Method class every Sunday and love to cook a meal after that.

Selected Work

Milisuthando Trailer: