Contingency in Madagascar

'No matter how artful the photographer, no matter how carefully posed his subject, the beholder feels an irresistible urge to search such a picture for the tiny spark of contingency, of the Here and Now, with which reality has seared the subject; to find the inconspicuous spot where in the immediacy [...]
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'No matter how artful the photographer, no matter how carefully posed his subject, the beholder feels an irresistible urge to search such a picture for the tiny spark of contingency, of the Here and Now, with which reality has seared the subject; to find the inconspicuous spot where in the immediacy of that long-forgotten moment the future nests so eloquently that we, looking back, may rediscover it.' (Walter Benjamin) Storytelling and intimacy conspire in the magic of the street theatre that is the contingent encounter. Here one's participation is already loaded; any engagement involves risks of thought or of feeling. One might be touched by the event unfolding, wonder what gives one the right to be there, and then how to shape the response. In "Madagascar", Pam and Muecke work with an aesthetic of the glimpse; fleeting encounters with wisdom and beauty.