Django Jane

Various Artists.ZOO JKO WAR OMA, Django Jane, digital painting, variable dimensions, 2021.

Django Jane (1) is an experimental animation film (2) made of more than 2500 portraits downloaded from the Internet. The portraits show composers (3) from the Middle Ages to the present day. The film travels gradually through time, exposing gender/regional inequalities (4) in the arts in general and evolving with the technology (5) used to portray artists. The film is intentionally without a soundtrack, but must be accompanied during the screening by the live tuning of one or more pianos (or harpsichord). 

Depending on the budget available for the screening: 

i/ Solo: a single piano with a single piano tuner 

r/ À Quatre Mains: a single piano with two piano tuners

z/ Ménage à Trois: two pianos with three piano tuners

h/ Quatre Mains A2: two pianos with four piano tuners

b/ Mariage Mixte: a piano, a harpsichord and two piano tuners

D/ À Quatre-vingt Mains: 20 pianos and 40 piano tuners


  1. "Django Jane" is "a response to me feeling the sting of the threats being made to my rights as a woman, as a black woman, as a sexually liberated woman, even just as a daughter with parents who have been oppressed for many decades. Black women and those who have been the 'other', and the marginalised in society” Janelle Monáe. The Guardian, 2018.

  2. The video was originally intended for Christmas Tuning (with support from Cultural Activities Premium), to be broadcast on 25 December 2020. The project was cancelled. 

    ps: For the project PhD-CAP-20-21 Various Artists is looking for testimonials (can be anonymous) from artists and organisations who applied for the Culturele Activiteiten Premie of the Flemish Government in 2020.

  3. from Notker Balbulus (840 - 912) to Alma Deutscher (2005).

  4. 28,27% women, 7,65% non caucasian.

  5.  icon-tempera painting-intaglio-oil painting-monochrome photography-color photography-digital photography-selfie.

Various Artists.ZOO JKO WAR OMA, Django Jane, video (to be projected on a square screen), variable length, 2021.