TRANSCRIPT: It's called a walkabout. For me, it's going to be a sit about. And I start with that piece of art behind me called Requiem in Wood by Mozambican artist Govane. It's unique. I don't think there's a work like it in any other museum in the world, because we filmed its creation from the very beginning to the piece that's now here; cutting down the tree in the forest, chiseling away. And there was a very strong reason for doing that.
I'd been living 11 years in Mozambique. It was huge for me. I'd been in exile in London for 11 years. They were great years. I got a PhD, married, had two children, wrote books, was on TV, but I was unhappy, even when I was happy in England. I come to Mozambique, tremendous problems, ending civil war, but in Mozambique I was happy even when I was unhappy. And what really got my goat was the way Africa was being represented in the world: as a continent of refugees, starving children, begging bowls.
For me, Mozambique was a country of intense creativity, beautiful creativity, of people reflecting profoundly on the lives they were living and producing art of extraordinary quality. And I wanted to show that. So, I'd already seen work by the artist Govane. I liked it, and together with a friend from Vienna, Margit Niederhuber – who I'd met in Mozambique – we decided to film the creation of that work.
And the film is there. The work is here. You see him chiseling away. I'm watching it. I'm amazed at how that tree trunk is not used normally. Sculpture in wood [usually] shows standing figures. He went for the knotted parts, the roots, to show the turmoil in his country. He said, ‘The story is in the wood.’ And the theme that came out [was that] he said he would look at the wood, sleep, dream, wake up, and then start working away in terms of the dream that he'd had. He said the theme was [that] a man is approaching his death, but the little strength that he's got left is to cradle two other men who are dying. It's just exquisite in feeling and emotion. And that story really is in the wood. And I'm so glad that we're going to have something to show the world, and I'm blown up…
