To close Dean Hapeta (a.k.a. Te Kupu)’s exhibition currently on display in the AF Gallery, please join us as for a marathon screening of the 6 DVDs which comprise the monumental anti-monument that is Ngātahi – Know the Links. More than a mere documentation of one man’s journey, this work, through extensive interviews, traces the links between musical-communities, activism, and the struggle that is existence under contemporary capitalism for those living in the margins.

As much as it is a looking back at the implication of history’s unfolding, this work functions as a 10-year slice of history itself, demonstrating the breadth and depth of Hip Hop culture across the planet, and its status as perhaps the most sustained form of alter-globalisation. Over the 10 years which the work represents, we observe Hapeta’s interactions with the scenes and settlements, cities and peoples of 22 countries. It’s title, Ngātahi, means to stand together, to be as one and to act in unison. It draws attention to linkages between people and places, to shared circumstances and to often under-recognised connections. In each of the places Te Kupu visits through Ngātahi, we find people expressing not only their situations and challenging their marginalisation, but also finding new ways of living, way which refuse to be limited by circumstance. Within the diversity of voices and narratives that Te Kupu established through this travels, he emerges as agent provocateur, the author of a manifesto presented as hip-hop concept album.

From 2.00pm, Saturday 3 September @ Audio Foundation
KOHA