TALES OF A NOMADIC CITY
Christian Vium, Mohamed Ould Lemine / Denmark, Mauritania
In a first-person VR experience, audiences encounter Mohamed, a former nomad living on the outskirts of Nouakchott (Mauritania), on a journey to one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. Composed of layered collages of film and archives, the experience collapses temporalities, unfolding the extraordinary transformation of the city through time.
In 1958, there were five hundred people in Nouakchott. Today, more than a million inhabit the rapidly growing city. In the same period, Mauritania experienced an unprecedented demographic transformation from an almost entirely nomadic society, into a sedentary nation-state. Juxtaposing contemporary everyday scenes, rare historical archives and an ambeosonic sound design, TALES OF A NOMADIC CITY reveals the layered and multifaceted history of Nouakchott, providing a remarkable portrait of urban transformation that will resonate with youth across the African continent and in the global South, where According to recent projections by the UN, 90 per cent of projected global urbanization in the coming three decades is estimated to occur on the African continent and, the urban population alone will grow by 1,5 billion, increasing pressure on the rapidly expanding urban peripheries. TALES OF A NOMADIC CITY chronicles this urgent theme through a collaborative approach.
TALES OF A NOMADIC CITY is developed with local citizens: youth, artists, poets, students, and scholars who bring to life authentic everyday experiences and personal stories through workshops. The VR experience is made available to local communities and international audiences, for educational and artistic purposes. In collaboration with local and international partners, TALES OF A NOMADIC CITY provides VR headsets to community centres and schools as well as museums, galleries, and cultural institutions. The VR experience is part of a generative digital platform assembling oral histories, vernacular archives, rare local archival film and photographs, a feature documentary about the city, as well as short documentary VR films accessible online via smartphones and tablets, inviting people to upload their personal stories, revisioning the history of the city for future generations.
