Who Will Teach The Child?
MBS-A-002-F-004-S-001
The research enters into direct dialogue with Henry Purcell’s Man That Is Born of a Woman, one of the Funeral Sentences composed for the funeral of Quenn Mary II in 1695. Written in late seventeenth-century England, during the expansion of the British colonial enterprise, the work is revisited here not only as sacred music but as a historical document whose beauty coexists with the political and moral contradictions of its time. Read alongside William Segodisho’s testimony, Purcell’s composition becomes a space where mourning, innocence, institutional authority and colonial histories resonate across centuries.
Unresolved Case No. 008
Unresolved Case No. 008 is an archival fund investigating the public testimony of William Segodisho, a South African survivor who has spoken publicly about the sexual abuse he endured within Catholic institutions during his childhood. Rather than reconstructing his biography, the fund considers his testimony as the point of departure for a broader investigation into childhood, institutional authority, religious violence and the ethics of transmission. Through performance, moving image, photography and archival research, the project examines how personal testimony continues to reshape collective memory long after the events themselves. Conceived as an evolving archive, the fund preserves documents, artistic responses and research materials that question who remains responsible for teaching, protecting and remembering the child.The research enters into direct dialogue with Henry Purcell’s Man That Is Born of a Woman, one of the Funeral Sentences composed for the funeral of Quenn Mary II in 1695. Written in late seventeenth-century England, during the expansion of the British colonial enterprise, the work is revisited here not only as sacred music but as a historical document whose beauty coexists with the political and moral contradictions of its time. Read alongside William Segodisho’s testimony, Purcell’s composition becomes a space where mourning, innocence, institutional authority and colonial histories resonate across centuries.