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HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF H A L I M E L - D A B H A P ROJ ECT BY SAV V Y C O N T E M P O R A RY, I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N WITH MAERZMUSIK – FESTIVAL FOR TIME ISSUES RESEARCH, EXHIBITION, PERFORMANCE AND PUBLICATION PROJECT EXHIBITION 20.03.–09.05.2021 O P E N I N G H O U R S Thursday–Sunday 14:00–19:00 (visits only with online registration) WITH Halim El-Dabh and Leo Asemota Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother & Rasheedah Phillips) Vivian Caccuri Jessica Ekomane Jihan El-Tahri Theo Eshetu Satch Hoyt Aryan Kaganof Tegene Kunbi Yara Mekawei Magdi Mostafa Joe Namy Camille Norment Emeka Ogboh Matana Roberts Lorenzo Sandoval Sunette L. Viljoen O N L I N E I N V O C A T I O N S 20.03.2020 16:00 WITH Halim El-Dabh and Medhat Aldaabal Lois Alexander Jessie Cox with Wu Wei and Nicola Hein Ali Demirel Jessica Ekomane Mena Mark Hanna Ali Hasan Sofia Jernberg Mazen Kerbaj Magda Mayas Lorenzo Sandoval Ute Wassermann S A V V Y Contemporary respects the current measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish everyone good health and safety. The lockdown regulations have just changed and we will be open for visits with online registration and a negative C O V I D - 1 9 test. P R O J E C T P A R T N E R S MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues and Deutschlandfunk Kultur S U P P O R T This project has been funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation with additional support from Goethe Institut, MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues and Deutschlandfunk Kultur S A V V Y Contemporary The Laboratory of Form-Ideas
GRATITUDE
The final steps towards the grand presentation of this
project were overshadowed by the sad passing of our
colleague and friend, Bona Kingsley Manga Bell, to whom
we dedicate this whole project. May these two sons of
the African continent, Halim El Dabh and Bona Kingsley
Manga Bell, meet and chant in unison in the great
beyond.
Over the last five years, and together with artists,
writers, curators, musicians and composers from all
over the world, we have been revisiting the work of
Halim El-Dabh which spans through the 20th century,
and was made possible only by the immense generosity
and knowledge shared by Halim El-Dabh, and with
continued support by Deborah El-Dabh.
This ongoing research has been built paper by paper,
sound upon sound, through intensive research and
collaboration with those who worked closely with Halim
El-Dabh, his friends and family, and various institutions.
We would like to extend our warm thanks to: Habeeb
El-Dabh, Dawn Carson, Ron Slabe, Grant Marquit,
Magda Saleh, Cara Gilgenbach (Kent State University
Libraries. Special Collections and Archives), Jan Senn
and Melissa Olson (Kent State Magazine), Nick Patterson
(Music Librarian at Columbia University), Seth Cluett
TEAM
(Columbia Computer Music Center), Oliver Tobin, Ellen
C O N C E I V E D B Y Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and Kamila Metwaly
Graff, and Peggy Lyman (Martha Graham Company),
A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
Alice Shields, Thom Holmes, George E. Lewis, James
C U R A T O R Kamila Metwaly
Vaughan, Hasan Hajuri, Tommy McCutchon, Greg
C O - C U R A T O R Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock
Adams, Cecilia Peterson (Rinzler Archives at the Center
C O - C U R A T O R A N D E D I T O R Onur Çimen
for Folklife and Cultural Heritage), Karen Milbourne,
C U R A T O R I A L A S S I S T A N T Lili Somogyi
Robert Leopold, Michael Mason (Smithsonian Institute),
S C E N O G R A P H Y D E S I G N Ola Zileńska
Colette Lucas (The MacDowell Colony), Janet L. Stanley
P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R António Pedro Mendes
(Smithsonian Institution), Jeff Ingram (Standing Rock
P R O D U C T I O N T E A M Billy Fowo
Cultural Arts), Robin the Fog (BBC Radio 4), Jeff St. Clair
G E N E R A L M A N A G E R Lema Sikod
(WKSU), Nasri Zacharia and B. Lorenzo Roaché (Harlem
M A N A G E M E N T Jörg-Peter Schulze
International Film Festival (Hi)) and the archives of
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S Anna Jäger
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New
G R A P H I C D E S I G N Juan Pablo García Sossa
York Public Library for the Performing Arts Archives, and
A R T H A N D L I N G Kimani Joseph Peter Lowas
Howard University Archives.
L I G H T D E S I G N Emilio Cordero
T E C H Bert Günter
A SPECIAL THANK YOU to Deborah El-Dabh who
R E S E A R C H B E R L I N I T E R A T I O N Monilola Ilupeju Sagal Farah
continues to carry Halim El-Dabh in her ongoing
T R A N S L A T I O N S Anna Jäger (German) Muhammad Salah Abdulaziz (Arabic)
generosity to keep his music, spirit, and legacy alive.
O U R G R A T I T U D E T O all former members who have built this project with us:
Without her guidance and support our collective work
Olani Ewunnet Mahnoor Lodhi Beya Othmani Marie Hélène Pereira and Heba Habib
would have not been possible.
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 03 / 2 4CONTENT
01 TRACING HERE HISTORY BEGAN 06
02 FLOORPLAN 08
03 WORK DESCRIPTIONS AND ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES 10
04 CURATORIAL TEXT BY BONAVENTURE SOH BEJENG NDIKUNG 18
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 04 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 05 / 2 4TRACING
and hinting at unexplored routes of thinking, Camille Norment’s triptych drawings are made of iron
composing, and contemplating on African sonicity and filings displayed on a transparent film and glass, and
its effects on historicity. is a sensitive reflection upon ‘sympathetic vibration’ as
a contagion for hysteria, and the dissonant attraction
H E R E HISTO RY BEGAN Artists, writers, thinkers and performers are invited to
seek inspiration from his legacy and find new languages
and forms of creative expression:
S A V V Y Contemporary is embraced by the
and repulsion of magnetism. The drawings relate to
the scarring of the individual mind and body, to the
cyclical historical scarring of socio-cultural phenomena.
Tegene Kunbi’s work is a visualization of musicality,
sound piece of Matana Roberts who tells stories of compositions and the translating of the sound, tastes,
“Since my traditions are rooted in Egypt, my and whose Pan-Africanist vision led him throughout her ancestors and of travels throughout different and the colours of the quotidian – especially an
language of sound tends to bring into being the the African continent to connect and collaborate with geographies in Africa finding mutual points with El- Ethiopian quotidian – into geometric forms. The work is
sounds of Africa. In Africa singing is a function thinkers, musicians, and politicians like Leopold Sedar Dabh’s journeys, which all convene into an ecology of about the interaction between these different realities
of life. One sings as an activity, not in order to be Senghor and Haile Selassie while collecting sounds sound. Upon entering the space, visitors are welcomed such as how sounds intersect in the markets or in the
good. To be a good musician in Africa is to make and instruments from around the continent and the by The Constellations of Halim El-Dabh, an archival streets. Jessica Ekomane’s work takes cue from El-
total use of the instrument, not to select only diaspora. A composer who, through a span of over seven display of curtains displaying the ongoing research Dabh’s investigation into rhythm as both a sociopolitical
certain capabilities of the instrument and make decades, cross-pollinated sonic disciplines ranging of S A V V Y Contemporary designed by Lorenzo as well as musical phenomenon. This psychoacoustic
these capabilities the law of the instrument.” from music for voice and electronic music to opera, Sandoval and channeled through the sound of Halim sound installation is an abstract sonification of people’s
Halim El-Dabh, liner notes The Osiris Ritual, symphony, ballet, orchestra while conducting significant El-Dabh’s fourteen Visitation pieces from the album behavior, and syncopation heard in the constantly
Ptahmose and the Magic Spell, 1972 research into the sonic traditions of Egypt, Ethiopia, Laiyla and the Poet. In Al Mujahid –The Mechanism, Yara shifting psychoacoustic patterns which reflect on the
Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Mekawei continues to pay homage to El-Dabh through time of the history of labor, and El-Dabh’s reading of the
“What I love about music is it connects me with Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South investigating sound and its source, looking at where the rhythm of the history of labor, rhythm of the soil, and the
the universe. It puts me in contact with every Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, machine’s life begins, she uses sound to create motors destandardization of time in music.
human being. Music is not just what your ear can Niger, Morocco, Greece, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, that instigate minimal sounds when scratching the
hear, but what your body can experience. Every Mexico, and Jamaica, and the United States. surface of a speaker. Aryan Kaganof’s video work uses a selection from Halim
human being has a gesture, and that gesture El-Dabh’s sound works and extends his sculptural
explains your life history in a way — the way you This exhibition leads into a series of concerts, lectures, Leo Asemota’s work is an interventive series of pieces which approach to the image, the choreography of the
use the body. There are thousands of gestures performances, radio programmes, a publication and include two music dictionaries, a neon light installation, and narration is entirely dependent on an interpretation
to explain a culture of a society, between the workshops throughout 2021, expanding our prelude a manuscript displayed on a collapsible music stand which of image as music, a music sculpted onto the retina.
gesture, which I’m very interested to learn, and at the 2018 Dak’Art Biennial: Canine Wisdom for the can be read as an annotation of histories of omission, and Sunette L. Viljoen’s series of lightweight, movable wall
the relation to sound, a fantastic tool to become Barking Dog Sextet: Exploring the Sonic Cosmologies of an intervention into how they can be retold. Joe Namy’s surfaces is installed throughout the exhibition space
liberated and find yourself.” Halim El-Dabh. We are interested in that which “might sound installation is based on two sound scores composed with the intent to soften, break apart and engage with
Halim El-Dabh in conversation with Maha prevent that ongoing work of agnosia from deleting the by Halim El-Dabh titled Sonic No. 7 and 10, articulated in the room’s sonic and visual states. Conversing with the
ElNabawi, MadaMasr, 2016 future memory of the black avant-gardes”1 as Kodwo the understanding of the multifaceted elements of playing scenography of an exhibition space where sound is both
Eshun underscored during SAVVY Contemporary’s and the derebucca. This installation draws attention to the the content and concept. Magdi Mostafa interactive
MaerzMusik’s joint focus on Julius Eastman in deep-rooted correlation between culture and agriculture sound installation consists of two top load washing
HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING 2017-2018, yet another composer actively excluded as well as musical differences embedded within the score. machines connected to four sound wave generators. It
THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM from past and future history. Jihan El-Tahri’s installation weaves a pattern made out of a is an abstracted evocation of the artist’s neighborhood
E L - D A B H is the culmination of a five year long variety of material and mediums for us to follow El-Dabh’s as heard on Fridays; a day of prayers, and also a day of
research, and our second homage to the oeuvre We will bend time and re-mix history – fast-forwarding, travels through the African continent which informed his household chores and washing.The work highlights how
of the Egyptian musician, Pan-Africanist, creative pausing, rewinding, forwarding again, and stopping, sonic practice, that also coincides with El-Tahri’s own path machine sounds have been fundamental to our sound
musicologist, and philosopher Halim El-Dabh, one of almost as if physically spinning on a turntable through towards and through Africa. landscape since they became a part of our daily lives.
the most seminal composers of the 20th century who temporalities, sonic methods, sonic geographies, (un)
this March would have turned 100 years. timing time and “extending the same mix based on Theo Eshetu presents us an audio-visual work that Vivian Cacuri’s installation reflects on a specific type
repetitions and recirculations of the same thing.”2 comments on how history is written and how the colonial of mosquitos found in the Amazonas region which face
With this endeavour into sound and its spaces, we S A V V Y Contemporary has commissioned gaze witnessed it, thus exposes the colonial logic and its extinction due to deforestation. The work reflects on
honour our elder Halim El-Dabh. His work is an contemporary artists, composers, and performers to absurdity. The work is composed of sound and images, sounds that are steadily escaping our soundscapes,
inspiration to us and guides us through a multifaceted produce sonic, visual, installative and extra-disciplinary collaged from films and historical material on Egypt. Satch due to an increased man made source of noise. Instead
history of music, philosophy and tools accessed and works to pay tribute to, to reflect on, and to get inspired Hoyt’s interactive sound installation, made of a magnetic of associating noise with the unwanted – such as
explored by El-Dabh through the years. by Halim El-Dabh over his seventy years of work. tape textile stretched over eight drum heads, "Tape Head" the sound of a mosquito, Cacuri seeks inspiration
With this research and exhibition we question: what The Unscoring of the Hyenas Sonic Migrations places Halim in El-Dabh’s philosophy that noise is rather a space
are the mechanisms by which Halim El-Dabh could be This exhibition allows us to enter the life and work of El-Dabh at the beginning of the history of tape machines of accepting all sounds to cohabit spaces. Lorenzo
excluded from the canon? An artist whose legendary Halim El-Dabh, not only as a means of documentation and experiments with electronic music. Through their video Sandoval’s sonic travelogue dives into archives of El-
composition “It is Dark and Damp on the Front” (1949) but also as a source of inspiration and as a ground to work, Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa aka Moor Dabh, bringing its contents into relation with materials
brought him international recognition before he build on for new sonic endeavours, taking a cue from Mother & Rasheedah Phillips) invite the visitor to question and concepts of color, waves, mathematics, rhythm and
received formal music training; who collaborated with his phenomenal graphic scores, writings on colour, and break the order of time that is divided into past, present space, to explore the notion of divergent genealogies
the modern dance titan Martha Graham; who composed movement, and improvisation. At the same time, HERE and future, as the future appears in the past through from the logic of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis. Lastly,
one of the earliest pieces of electronic music known to HISTORY BEGAN becomes a re/verberation of history, different symbols and generations. through Emeka Ogboh’s installation, Halim El-Dabh’s
date, “Taabir El-Zaar” (1944), which launched a wave of complexifying here both temporally and geopolitically, sonic and musical practice finds a new visuality in the
experimental electronic music flourishing until today; moving images when sonic waves mesh into each other
whose sound installation “Here History Began” (1961) while both of them are inseparable sensory experiences.
1 Kodwo Eshun in his lecture “Unbinding Eastman”, during S A V V Y Contemporary’s 2 Josh Kun in his lecture on Border Atonalism, during S A V V Y Contemporary’s
has become synonymous with the pyramids in Giza; I N V O C A T I O N S on Julius Eastman, 2018 I N V O C A T I O N S on Julius Eastman, 2018.
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 06 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 07 / 2 4floorplan
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01 LORENZO SANDOVAL 05 JIHAN EL-TAHRI 10 SATCH HOYT 14 SUNETTE L. VILJOEN
The Book of Vibration. Can’t You Hear the Whisper Weaving Connections "Tape Head" the Unscoring of the Hyenas Sonic Migrations Opening Ambience
of One Another’s Touch? Installation, sound, fabric, beads, 2021 Sonic fabric, (magnetic tape) Drum-heads Drumhoops Sonic Sculpture, aluminium, felt, steel, acrylic, 2018-2021
A Sonic Travelogue From Within Halim El-Dabh’s Work wand, (playback Tape head) wood, audio components, each
Installation with archive curtain, hammock, sound and video, 06 YARA MEKAWEI drum is 50 x 50 cm 15 MAGDI MOSTAFA
2018-2021 Al Mujahid: “The Mechanism” Sound Cells
Sound installation, motors/speakers, 2021 11 TEGENE KUNBI Sound Installation, two washing machines and four tone
02 LEO ASEMOTA Sensing Sound Through Color generators, 2021
The Workbook for Exploring The Sonic Cosmologies 07 BLACK QUANTUM FUTURISM A series of paintings, oil on canvas, various dimensions,
of Halim El-Dabh Time Travel Experiments (Experimental Time Order) 2018–2021 16 VIVIAN CACCURI
Music dictionaries, hand-written notes, Single-channel HD video, 9:30 min, 2017 Cyclone Aegypti
neon light installation, 2021 12 JESSICA EKOMANE Installation with concrete, speakers, audio cables, wood,
08 THEO ESHETU Worlds Within Worlds amplifiers, blue lights and soundtrack, 2021
03 MATANA ROBERTS Here History Began Installation, Max/MSP, Speakers, 4-channels, 2021
Laying Track Sound and video installation, 12’42’’, 2020 17 EMEKA OGBOH
Audio, speakers, field recordings, recorded improvisation, 13 ARYAN KAGANOF Untitled
collage, 2021 09 CAMILLE NORMENT Silence In the Beginning Live visual installation of works by Halim El-Dabh
Deviations and Resonance 1–4 Film and Sound Projection, 2021
04 JOE NAMY Drawings, iron filings on transparent film and glass.
Study for Sonic No. 7 & No. 10 210 x 297 mm, 2017
Installation, plant, sound, text, photos, 2020
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 08 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 09 / 2 4WORKs & BIOS
This work includes a number of music dictionaries, a M A T A N A R O B E R T S is an internationally
neon light installation titled “Ideas express you”, and a renowned composer, saxophonist, and mixed-media
manuscript displayed on a collapsible music stand as an practitioner. Roberts works in many contexts and
annotation of histories of omission, and an intervention mediums, including improvisation, dance, poetry, and
into how they can be retold. theater. She made two records as a core member of
the Sticks And Stones trio in the early 2000s and has
I. Arthur Jacobs gone on to release a diverse body of solo and ensemble
A New Dictionary of MUSIC work under her own name on Constellation and Central
First published 1958 Control over the past decade. She is perhaps best
01 LORENZO SANDOVAL the sound and image archive gathered at S A V V Y
Reprinted with revisions 1960, 1961, 1963 known for her acclaimed Coin Coin project, a multi-
The Book of Vibration. Can’t You Hear the Whisper Contemporary. From these materials, the work proposes
Second edition 1967 chapter work of “panoramic sound quilting” that aims
of One Another’s Touch? five different chapters (color, waves, mathematics,
Insert with revisions by Leo Asemota 2018 to expose the mystical roots and channel the intuitive
A Sonic Travelogue From Within Halim El-Dabh’s Work rhythm and space) to explore the notion of divergent
Set in Monotype Times spirit-raising traditions of American creative expression
Installation with archive curtain, hammock, sound and genealogies from the logic of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis.
while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement
video, 2018-2021 Alongside the voice of El-Dabh, the voice-overs are by
II. Arthur Jacobs with narrativity, history, community and political
Kamila Metwaly and Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock.
The New Penguin Dictionary of MUSIC expression within improvisatory musical structures.
This project is developed in three different parts; the
First published 1958 Constellation began documenting the Coin Coin project
first two were originally made for “Canine Wisdom for L O R E N Z O S A N D O V A L works as an artist
Reprinted with revisions 1960, 1961, 1963 in 2011 and has released the first four of a projected
the Barking Dog – The Dog Done gone Deaf. Exploring and curator. He received curatorial prizes such as
Second edition 1967 twelve album-length chapters to date.
The Sonic Cosmologies of Halim El Dabh” at Dakar Inéditos 2011, Can Felipa Curatorial Prize and Nogueras
Reprinted with revisions 1968, 1970
Biennial 2018. Blanchard 2012. He won the art prize Generación
Reprinted 1971, 1972 04 J O E N A M Y
2017; presented in La Casa Encendida (Madrid) and
Third edition 1973 Study for Sonic No. 7 & No. 10
THE CONSTELLATIONS OF HALIM V Beca DKV- Álvarez Margaride for “Shadow Writing
Reprinted 1974, 1975, 1976 Installation, plant, sound, text, photos, 2020
E L - D A B H , consists of six curtains with archival (Algorithm /Quipu)” at LABoral, Gijón, 2017. Sandoval
Fourth edition 1977
material printed on canvas, conceptualized and was nominated for the Berlin Art Prize 2018 and Premio
Reprinted with revisions 1978 This sound study is an excerpt from the score Sonic No.
displayed by Lorenzo Sandoval. The display of the Arte Contemporáneo Cervezas Alhambra 2020. He was
Insert with revisions by Leo Asemota 2018 7 & No. 10 written by Halim El-Dabh for solo derebucca,
archival material of Halim El-Dabh works as a literal part of the Miracle Workers Collective representing
Set in Monotype Times a very loose interpretation of the Variable, section G.
soft archive printed on textile. These six textiles Finland in the Venice Biennale 2019. In 2020, presented
The text is a coda for this recording. Much like the sonic
are organized in two different ways. In the external “Shadow Writing” with pieces from all the chapters
III. Erratum score is an exercise in fingertip gymnastics, the text is
area, instead of a classic linear timeline format, of the project, curated by Emanuele Guidi at Centro
“Sounds of New Music” album cover, liner notes, and an exercise in reaching the limits of interpretation in
there are three different constellations organized Párraga in Murcia. Together with Tono Vízcaino, he
magnifier written improvisation. The elements in this installation
around three chapters around El-Dabh’s artistic and is preparing “Industria. Matrices, tramas y sonidos”
draw attention to the deep-rooted correlation between
sonic philosophies which are: meanings of sounds, for IVAM. Since 2015, Sandoval runs The Institute for
IV. Untitled culture, agricultural, and musical differences embedded
crossing the electric magnetic, and trans-sonority. The Endotic Research, which opened as a venue in 2018,
Printed aluminium on manuscript paper in a frame and within the score.
information of these constellations can be interpreted co-directed by Benjamin Busch, and recently by Aouefa
collapsible music stand
as a color score, creating resonations in between the Amoussouvi too.
J O E N A M Y is an artist, educator, and composer,
different circles, proposing an understanding of wave-
V. Ideas express you often working collaboratively and across mediums —
form circular time, instead of a linear one. P E D R O A N D R É is a sound and visual artist and
Neon light and transformer in performance, sculpture, photography, text, video,
electronic musician. He worked as a composer and
and installation. His projects often focus on the social
H A M M O C K S C O R E N O . 1 is a textile sound artist for the project Museu da Cidade, Porto,
L E O A S E M O T A has places of residence in constructs of music and organized sound, such as the
pattern composition, acrylic paint on canvas, and 2020. He is a member of the art collective Piso and
London, England, and in his birthplace Benin City, pageantry and geo-politics of opera, the noise laws
ropes. While composed of a painting inspired by textile the electronic music label Marvellous Tone. With the
Nigeria. and gender dynamics of bass, the colors and tones of
patterns, the painting works as a hammock, a functional artist Nils Meisel, Pedro André develops the creative
militarization, the migration patterns of instruments
object that can be used for resting, sitting and laying: workshops CSF. Among others, Pedro André worked
03 M A T A N A R O B E R T S and songs, and the complexities of translation in all this
a place to hear the surroundings and practice deep with different musicians and sound artists, Nils Meisel,
Laying Track from language to language, from score to sound, from
listening. Another layer of the work is that it is a score to Gil Delindro, experimental dub producers, Jonathan
Audio, speakers, field recordings, recorded drum to dance.
be eventually played (as we can see in the video work, Saldanha, Pedro Augusto, turntablist Ignaz Schick,
improvisation, collage, 2021
played during the opening in Dakar), inspired by Halim or piano player Gonçalo Moreira. He developed work
Laying Track is a sound quilt composition that Matana 05 J I H A N E L - T A H R I
El-Dabh’s use of the old Egyptian color notation system. for the curators Nuno Faria, Eglantina Monteiro and
Roberts created by utilizing a compositional platform Weaving Connections
Within these layers, the piece seeks for opening the the artist Lorenzo Sandoval. His recent collaborations
she refers to as P.S.Q (panoramic sound quilting). This Installation, sound, fabric, beads, 2021
perception about the understanding of where a score include works with Mariana Caló and Francisco
particular sound quilt is inspired by Halim El-Dabh,
can be found, and how to apply a sonic understanding Queimadela for the audio-visual installations, Meia
paying particular attention to his archival process that Out of Abyss, which Halim El-Dabh painted on canvas
of the patterns of everyday life, proposing a series of – Noite, Animal Vegetal Mineral and composed the
revolved around a longtime interest in field recordings, in 2007 as a musical notation, is reminiscent of Ibn
transactions and translations with the surroundings. soundtrack for the short-film Sombra Luminosa.
travel research, and constant interest in cultural Sina’s concepts on music and healing, attributing
immersion for the basis of sonic witness, appreciation and explaining specific colors to music notes. This
THE BOOK OF VIBRATION. CAN’T 02 L E O A S E M O T A
and immersive understanding. The main sonic fabric continuum in Ibn Sina’s music as healing interpretation
YOU HEAR THE WHISPER OF ONE The Workbook for Exploring The Sonic Cosmologies
herein includes a variety of field recordings that the was adopted by Halim in his daily attire. Fabric and
ANOTHER’S TOUCH? A SONIC of Halim El-Dabh
artist herself has made while doing extensive travel texture, especially that of cotton in its different forms,
TRAVELOGUE FROM WITHIN HALIM Music dictionaries, hand-written notes,
stateside and abroad for an ongoing durational audio crosses the African continent as an uninterrupted
E L D A B H ’ S W O R K is a looped film developed neon light installation, 2021
project called “Coin Coin”. evolution transmitting the similarities of the cultures,
in collaboration with Pedro André takes as a departure
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 0 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 1 / 2 4weaving connections to El-Dabh’s daily relationship to in family workshops. Women are typically spinners and Sahara since the 11th century continues to be worn of vision, the philosophy of composition is shaped
color, textile, fabric, and sound in African countries. dyers, while men generally weave and sew the cloth. today from the south of Morocco to the Anti-Atlas, the by sophisticated practices that convey messages
Many of the dyes used in the production of faso dan fani Senegal River, and Mauritania. Made from a variety of of abstract dimensions to the public. Mekawei uses
Cloth 1: “Out of the Abyss” Print of a Halim El Dabh have medicinal properties, and because of this the cloth light weight fabrics especially cotton and rayon. Shegga research literature on social ideologies in her concepts.
painting 2007: Rayon fabric is associated with healing and protection, both spiritual is the term and common name for lightweight, 100% She follows her work through a research point of uniting
and physical. The stripes of each cloth are woven cotton, plain weave fabric with a very low thread count. a project and the other, the work shows an intangible
A versatile fabric made of semi-synthetic fiber using to correspond to a proverb. Thus, wearing the cloth Apart from the very traditional solid indigo melhfa aspect of her personality as a woman living in an East
wood pulp as its main ingredients. Although rayon as conveys a message associated with a pattern. Faso dan (called nila), today’s melhfa have ornate designs created African society.
a textile often resembles nylon, it can imitate the feel fani may be worn in a variety of situations to express using two types of “tie and dye” techniques. Although
and texture of most fabrics from silk, wool or cotton a range of opinions and political views. What makes the textile can be used for any purpose, it is most widely 07 B L A C K Q U A N T U M F U T U R I S M
and linen. The fibers are known to most accurately and this cloth special is its connotation when President used today in Sudan, Mauritania and The Western Time Travel Experiments (Experimental Time Order)
easily dyed in a wide range of colors. Thomas Sankara made it into a national symbol making Sahara as women’s garment. For Sahrawis it is one of Single-channel HD video, 9:30 min, 2017
Cloth 2 & 3 (black and white): Bogolan / Bògòlanfini it mandatory that the faso dan fani be worn in the the strongest cultural weapons used against Spanish
Bambara: Bogo = "earth" or "mud," lan = "with", fini = workplace. He underlined that it was a form of identity colonialism in the 19th century and continues to serve Do-it-yourself time travel experiments from an
"cloth." that would unite a people freshly emancipated from as a symbol of national identity and struggle against embedded time travel manual appear in the speculative
colonialism, stating in 1986: “To wear the faso dan fani colonial oppression. fiction book Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel
A handmade Malian cotton fabric traditionally dyed is an economic, cultural and political act of defiance to Tales), written and published by Rasheedah Phillips.
with fermented mud. Although usually translated as imperialism.” J I H A N E L - T A H R I is a multi- award-winning Depicted time travel experiments employ the concept
“mud cloth,” bogolan actually refers to a clay slip with film director, writer, visual artist and producer. of Black Grandmother Paradoxes, which emphasize
a high iron content that produces a black pigment Cloth 6 (Pharaonic print): Egyptian Cotton She currently serves as the General Director of the matrilineal or matri-curvature timelines that are
when applied to handspun and handwoven cotton Berlin based documentary support institution DOX feminine and communally-generated, where the future
cloth. The textile, indigenous to Mali, has been made Ever since the time of the pharaohs, spinning and BOX. El-Tahri has been a member of The Academy emerges into the past by way of omens, prophecies, and
and worn for generations. In traditional Malian culture, weaving has been considered a leading industry in (Oscars) since 2017 and is currently on the selection symbols, while the past is a space of open possibility,
bògòlanfini is worn by hunters, serving as camouflage, Egypt. Monuments, inscriptions in Pharaonic temples committee of the Locarno International Film Festival. speculation, and active revision by multiple generations
as ritual protection and as a badge of status. Women and shrouds used for wrapping up mummies are She has directed more than 15 films and her visual art of people situated in the relative future.
are wrapped in bògòlanfini after their initiation into evidence that the ancient Egyptians used cotton since exhibitions have travelled to renowned museums and
adulthood and immediately after childbirth, as the cloth the earliest Nubian dynasties. However, it wasn’t until several biennales around the world. Her writings include B L A C K Q U A N T U M F U T U R I S M is an
is believed to have the power to absorb the dangerous the 1800’s that Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern Les Sept Vies de Yasser Arafat (Grasset) and Israel and interdisciplinary creative practice between Camae
forces released under such circumstances. In the past, Egypt, introduced a new staple producing long fiber the Arabs, The 50 Years War (Penguin). She continues to Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that weaves quantum
bogolan was made exclusively by women, who created that produced the finest cotton. The crop was cultivated mentor in various documentary and filmmaking labs. physics, afrofuturism, and Afrodiasporic concepts of
it for use in specific ritual contexts. Bògòlanfini patterns throughout the Nile Delta and became the country’s El-Tahri has served on the boards of several African film time, ritual, text, and sound to present innovative works
are rich in cultural significance, referring to historical leading export. While cotton earnings sparked the organisations including the Federation of Pan African and tools offering practical ways to escape negative
events, symbols, objects, mythological concepts move towards industrialization, the fluctuation in prices Cinema and The Guild of African Filmmakers in the temporal loops, oppression vortexes, and the digital
or proverbs. Since about 1980, the bògòlanfini has particularly due to the American Civil War, were also Diaspora. matrix. BQF has created a number of community-based
become a symbol of Malian cultural identity and is responsible for Egypt’s massive debt which eventually projects, performances, experimental music projects,
being promoted as such by the Malian government. heralded colonial rule. 06 Y A R A M E K A W E I installations, workshops, books, short films, zines,
Al Mujahid: “The Mechanism” including the award-winning Community Futures Lab.
Cloth 4 (Green): Thioupe, also referred to as Batik Cloth 7 (Blue): Guinea Brocade/ Bazin Riche Sound installation, motors/speakers, 2021
Means to dye in Wolof 08 T H E O E S H E T U
Dating back to the Middle Ages, brocade fabric was This sonic tableau seeks inspiration in Halim El-Dabh’s Here History Began
Mostly made of cotton fabric, it is the technique of one of the few luxury fabrics worn by nobility, made lifelong research of the very source of sound, and the Sound and video installation, 12’42’’, 2020
dyeing the cloth, practiced in west and central Africa, from 100% cotton. The unique designs are intricately way sounds from different sources co-live in space and
that distinguishes this form of textile. African tie & woven into shiny and starchy fabric. Bazin fabrics are time. Just like Halim El-Dabh was looking for the source First composed as a sound piece, this video is brought
dye technique dates back as early as the sixth century, made differently than other materials, they all start as of sounds that surround us, connecting all sounds to the together with a method of improvisation inspired by the
where by specific ways of folding, dipping in dye and a plain, white untreated cloth. Bazin is first batiked, or spectrality of noise, Mekawei’s work is a deliberation on sound and composition used by Halim El-Dabh through
tying strings to form distinct patterns symbolizing painted with wax, then dyed an array of colors. The batik where machines’ lives begin and their sound sources. the years. Images of Egypt, shifting from one to the
diverse cultural references. The bright colours are process leaves behind undyed patterns that make every She uses motors that instigate minimal sounds when other, are posing a history. And this history occurs in a
extracted from plant juices, flowers, leaves and barks of piece of fabric unique. The material is then washed in scratching the surface of a speaker. The sculpture place that is imagined by colonial logic. Eshetu’s work
trees. Traditionally tie-dye garments were reserved for a starch bath and softened with a wooden stick. Bazin, consists of 150 DC motors scratching the surface of brings forth the dominance of perceptions of Egypt
Royals and wealthy traders. traditionally known as “Guinea cloths” were made in 5cm raw speakers, activated by a tone generator. as products of appropriation by the colonial logic and
imitation of the Indian goods in West Africa, where questions the reason they inhabit, which is immanent in
Cloth 5 (striped black and purple): faso dan fani cotton was grown, spun, and woven well before direct Y A R A M E K A W E I is a Cairo-based electronic colonialism. The imagery construction of colonial logic,
Means “woven cloth of the homeland” in Dioula: fani = trade with Europeans opened up. Today, it is used for music composer and sound artist. A prolific artist when edited with improvisation, exposes the absurdity
cloth, dan = woven, faso = homeland. religious garments and ceremonial attire. and scholar, Mekawei‘s sonic bricolages draw of itself; namely, its claim to reason over instinct as an
inspiration from the flow of urban centers and the old form of hierarchy, which fed colonialism in various
The Marka people of Burkina Faso created the textile Cloth 8 (Burgundy and Blue): Melhaf Shegga infrastructure of cities. She is interested in the ways, at various times. It is with this understanding of
based on a traditional indigo textile woven from cotton, philosophy of architecture, history, and literature. improvisation that the images produced by colonialism
kapok, and indigenous silk called tuntun. Their thread Literally means “cover or envelop” in Hasanya Arabic: Mekawei implemented the optical transfer from the become an image of colonialism itself.
is handspun, dyed, and woven on double-heddle looms Lahaf = wrap, Shegga = Gauze musical conversation and replaced sound waves with
into sets of striped cloth. Most of the work is completed An age-old textile commonly worn in the Atlantic visual forms. Her work is based on sound as a tool T H E O E S H E T U , working primarily in video,
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 2 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 3 / 2 4examines the imagery of the collective unconscious electronics, sonic feedback, and voice as performative VIII Symphony work cycle, whereas sine waves frequencies are slowly
through a complex interplay of signs and symbols utterance. IX Soufiane alternating during non-working hours.
exploring the nature of perception and the complexity X Sign 3
of identity. Throughout his prolific Oeuvre – spanning 10 S A T C H H O Y T XI Phoenix J E S S I C A E K O M A N E is a French-born
over 35 years – he has created a distinctive visual "Tape Head" the Unscoring of the Hyenas Sonic XII Dry Retch and Berlin-based electronic musician and sound
vocabulary based on a rhythmic montage and at Migrations XIII Electric shock artist. Her practice unfolds around live performances
time hypnotic, syncopated, collage of images. His Sonic fabric, (magnetic tape) Drum-heads Drumhoops XIV Soufiane 2 and installations. Her quadraphonic performances,
work encompasses a diversity of genres and media, Sonic wand, (playback Tape head) wood, audio XV Letter C characterized by their physical affect, seek a cathartic
ranging from experimental cinema to large-scale components, each drum is 50 x 50 cm XVI Between you effect through the interplay of psychoacoustics, the
video installations and live performances, in which XVII Mini bas perception of rhythmic structures and the interchange
the artist moves freely from seemingly abstract visual Halim El-Dabh is the father of musique concrete. His of noise and melody. Her ever-changing and immersive
montage to concrete essay films. Both philosophical early tape manipulations preceded Pierrre Schaefer Tegene Kunbi´s multilayered composition is an sonic landscapes are grounded in questions such as
and whimsically playful, his videos possess a dream- by four years. With "Tape Head" The Unscoring of the invitation to enter the realm of tangible translations of the relationship between individual perception and
like quality in which gestures, fragmented actions, and Hyenas Sonic Migrations and, in using magnetic tape sound. Pushed and pulled via the ratio of the individual collective dynamics or the investigation of listening
the mirroring of images into kaleidoscopic patterns in his work, Satch Hoyt pays homage to this sonic works the body is activated to become a viewer in expectations and their societal roots. She released her
question the very reality of what an image can reveal. continuum. The number eight represents the octave motion. To “see” the 17 parts of this composition is to debut album, Multivocal, on Important Records in 2019.
in music. In the Bible the number eight signifies be in rhythm. The work also reminds us of the notion
09 C A M I L L E N O R M E N T resurrection and regeneration, Halim El-Dabh was of The Mekta in the Art of Kita, it is a call for us to 13 A R Y A N K A G A N O F
Deviations and Resonance 1–4 raised in the Coptic Christian faith. The Africanisation see a particular entity embedded within the holistic Silence In the Beginning
Drawings, iron filings on transparent film and glass. of Christianity is extremely loaded and is implicit in perspective. Film and Sound Projection, 2021
210 x 297 mm, 2017 the unmuting and unpacking of African sonicities.
Consisting of eight drum elements the work is installed In his synesthetic composition, Kunbi has carefully In responding to Halim El-Dabh’s electronic music, this
The forms in Deviations of Resonance belong to a series onto the wall, the visitor is invited to gently stroke the woven the colours, tastes and rhythms of the quotidian video work has explicated for the artist the results of a
of iron filing drawings of the same title. They are a kind tip of the sonic wand over the sonic fabric in a diagonal into geometric forms. If we follow his path and listen more than twenty year long research into understanding
of signal-noise reminiscent of music notation sheets, direction, on contact, sound will be omitted from the carefully we find ourselves in the interactions between and avoiding the conventional relationship between
waveforms, and the closed system of Western music adjacent guitar amplifier. realities, sounds intersecting with markets, olfactoric sound and image in films. Whether it be "amplification
notation – a system in which “extra musicality” is denied promises and ultimately the corporeal visualisation of of the drama" in narrative cinema or "illustration of the
entry – as a symbolic motif. Some of the drawings in the S A T C H H O Y T was born in London of British the sonorous. themes of the song" in video clips I have always felt a
series manifest themselves in the shape of a scar, giving and African-Jamaican ancestry, is currently living deep repugnance for the ossification of possibilities that
them the bodily reference of lived experience. While and working in Berlin, Germany. He is a self taught T E G E N E K U N B I was born in Addis Ababa film scores and film music continually re-impose on
a wound is a trauma or separation, the scar is what interdisciplinary artist whose work includes installations (Ethiopia), where he studied at the Fine Arts School the medium. Aryan Kaganof presents the culmination
reconstitutes a whole. In Norment’s schema these scars and sculptures accompanied with sound, music, and subsequently taught at the College Academy. He of a decades-long experiment to treat image as music
are signifiers of dissonance – a transformation from performance and painting. Hoyt’s current, large scale, came to Germany in 2008 on a DAAD scholarship and and work with the visual as one usually works with
noise, violence and a wound. Dissonance, in this way, is global mapping project, Afro-Sonic Mapping seeks continued his training at the Universität der Künste. sound and music. He choses three works of Halim
about healing, and the scar is the trace of an event. In to trace the migrations of the Afro-Sonic signifier and His paintings have been shown in numerous solo and El-Dabh to use as a triptych: Electronics and the
the face of current anxieties, there is also the question understand its transfer through the black Atlantic group exhibitions in Germany and abroad (e.g. Berlin, Word; Meditation in White Sound; and Michael and the
of reopening historical scars. Tones that are abrasive passage. Sonic Mapping is a method developed by Frankfurt, New York, Nairobi, Dakar, Amsterdam, Dragon. Instead of trying to assemble a visual "clip" or
or sound out of tune, social tensions and traumas, even Satch Hoyt, based on research of the earliest factually Casablanca) and he has also been active in international narrative assemblage that would reduce the music to
magnets that refuse to connect to one another can all recorded polyphonic and polyrhythmic sounds from art education, including an ifa-funded residency project a "film score" he uses editing and re-filming of existing
constitute states of dissonance. Dissonance can be the African continent, and further tracing these sonic in Mauritania in 2020. His art has been awarded the found footage to create a duet whereby the imagery
described as an unresolved space, a state of instability, threads through the middle passage chapters into our Espinette Studio Award (Blaricum, Netherlands), among operates in the way that an improviser would with the
but one that is also constantly shifting, and open for current post-colonial epoch. This method becomes others. musical territory that Halim has carved out of time (as
new possibilities. a tool to perceive and understand the existence a sculptor would). Allow the viewer to hear the El-Dabh
and migrations of the Eternal Afro Sonic Signifier. 12 J E S S I C A E K O M A N E compositions as never before. This duet across the
C A M I L L E N O R M E N T utilizes in her work the Sonic Mapping links the unchartered waters of Worlds Within Worlds mediums fulfills, the promise in El-Dabh’s approach to
notion of cultural psychoacoustics as both an aesthetic anthropological field recordings to the contemporary Installation, Max/MSP, Speakers, 4-channels, 2021 music, as described by Mike Khoury: "Halim El-Dabh
and conceptual framework. She defines this term as urban frequencies of London, Kingston, Bahia, New compared his consideration of the sonic to how a visual
the investigation of socio-cultural phenomena through Orleans, New York, Los Angeles and Cali. Through rhythms and sine wave frequencies shifting in artist might relate to her media; he believed that, like
sound and music – particularly instances of sonic and real time, Worlds Within Worlds brings to experience the the creations of a sculptor, sound could be carved and
social dissonance, and works through sound as a force 11 T E G E N E K U N B I resulting data of a paper called "Finding the Probability shaped out of noise."
over the body, mind, and society. Composing artworks Sensing Sound Through Color of Doors Being Open Using a Continuous Position
through forms including recorded sound, installation, A series of paintings, oil on canvas, various dimensions, Logger". This study is an attempt at establishing the A R Y A N K A G A N O F is a South African filmmaker
drawing, and live performance, she applies this concept 2018–2021 frequency at which doors are opened over time to who studied at the Netherlands Film & Television
towards the creation of critical artworks that are evaluate working places safety in prevention of fires. Academy from 1990 to 1994. His first film as Aryan
preoccupied with the way in which form, space, and I Blue microphone Its authors however cite the "Hawthorne Effect" as an Kaganof was Western4.33 – a documentary about
the body of the viewer create experiences that are both II Sign unknown factor possibly invalidating those numbers. the German concentration camps in Namibia used to
somatic and cognitive. Norment performs widely with III Oclock This term refers to the incalculable effect that behavior massacre the Herero people in 1906. THe film won
glass armonica – an instrument that was once banned IV Electric magnetic changes due to being monitored, in this case because of Best Film prize at the 12th African Film Festival of
in fear of the psychological, social, or sexual power V Sign 2 the manager's pressure to ensure that their building will Milan as well as Best Documentary Prize at the 1st
its sound was thought to have over the body, and the VI Reballs meet safety objectives. Africa & Islands Festival of Reunion. The film was also
challenge it represented to social control – and with VII Sensation 1 The energetic pace of drums are dedicated to the 8-5 selected for the 2004 Berlinale. Kaganof's concerns
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 4 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 5 / 2 4with documentary filming are with the role that music spinning in the background, imbued with layers of 17 E M E K A O G B O H
and politics have in shaping our memory of ourselves. personal and social sonic values. Sound Cells thus Untitled
Kaganof has continued to make documentaries and raises a richly complex tapestry of social issues. In Live visual installation of works by Halim El-Dabh
feature films and the overlap between the two is his addition to capturing the aural character of a particular
field of interest. He made the first feature length film space, the piece also touches on gender roles in a Visualization of sound and music is not a new
shot on mobile phones: SMS Sugar Man. Other films of society at the intersection of religious conservatism and phenomenon. Halim El-Dabh however was inspired by
his are Unyazi Of The Bushveld (2007) and Giant Steps globalized modernity, and the questionable fetishization one of the earliest systems of music color notation of
(2005), among others He is a Fellow of the Stellenbosch and anthropomorphization of banal utilitarian objects. the ancient Egyptians that utilized circles and colours
Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and is currently in seeing and visualizing the process of reading music.
editor and curator of the online cultural journal herri. M A G D I M O S T A F A ’s practice has been radically “My intention and philosophy as a music composer is
reoriented into nascent areas of research since 2011, to open the door to a very old yet very new reality – the
14 S U N E T T E L . V I L J O E N departing from geographic and historical specificity ability to hear color as well as the ability to see sound.
Opening Ambience and instead focusing on the conceptual, spiritual This is a way to experience new feelings and new
Sculpture, aluminium, felt, steel, acrylic, 2018-2021 and physical notions of experimental 3D sound. He sensitivity to a world full of creativity” (“Color Music
is increasingly interested in notions of ambiguous, Paintings”, Halim El-Dabh). With today’s technology,
Opening Ambience is a series of lightweight, movable unclear, difficult-to-decipher “third forms of action” the possibilities of reimagining such old systems
wall surfaces installed throughout the exhibition space that are neither normative nor contradictory, positive within new realities is made possible. There are more
with the intent to soften, break apart and engage with nor negative; a type of behavior that sociologists, ways to imagine and create parameters for visual and
the room’s sonic and the visual states. Conversing with political scientists and psychologists can’t determine sound as the computer has become an instrument
the scenography of an exhibition space where sound the motivation for. He seeks to capture the sounds of for creating connections between those two senses;
is both the content and concept. The claddings are this behavior in space and insert them in an ambiguous the sonic and the visual. Using Alexander Scriabin’s
somewhere in between an angled awning for an exterior, parenthesis in a current "historical" moment that has “Clavier à Lumière” colour system, but moving in a
and an interior blind. It is a narrative tool that attaches been too sharply defined by the parameters of either-or, circular motion, Ogboh’s Untitled departs from El-
to the anecdotes told by El-Dabh in the exhibition – obey or dissent, acquiesce or revolt. Dabh’s experimentations with “Color Music Paintings”
picking up tones from his colour notation paintings of and the visualization of sound and music. The work has
Out of the Abyss, his descriptions of synesthesia, his 16 V I V I A N C A C C U R I been redeveloped for the Berlin iteration together with
use of movable panels to reflect sound, as well as his Cyclone Aegypti Fredrik Olofsson.
experiments with sound for agricultural purposes. The Installation with concrete, speakers, audio cables,
fabric affects how sounds are experienced in space and wood, amplifiers, blue lights and soundtrack, 2021
creates a hospitable, yet very specific environment to NOTE COLOR
see, hear and engage with the legacy of El-Dabh. V I V I A N C A C C U R I ’s installation reflects on C red intense
a specific type of mosquitos found in the Amazonas C# violet or purple
S U N E T T E L . V I L J O E N lives and works region which face extinction due to deforestation. The D yellow
in Berlin. She received her MFA from the University work reflects on sounds that are steadily escaping our D# flesh (glint of steel)
of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2012 soundscapes, due to an increased man made source of E sky blue (moonshine or frost)
and was a participant at the Jan van Eyck Academie in noise. Instead of associating noise with the unwanted F deep red
Maastricht, the Netherlands in 2014. Recent exhibitions – such as the sound of a mosquito, Caccuri seeks F# bright blue or violet
include: Gallery Momo, Cape Town, South Africa; the inspiration in El-Dabh’s philosophy that noise is rather a G orange
13th Dakar Biennale, Senegal; Manière Noire, Berlin, space of accepting all sounds to cohabit spaces. G# violet or lilac
Germany; Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn, the Netherlands A green
and Project Probe, Arnhem, the Netherlands. She was a The sound installation is composed by six concrete A# rose or steel
fellowship recipient at Braunschweig University of Art, speakers that play a sound piece made with natural B blue or pearly blue
Germany (2013); and artist-in-residence at Akademie and digitally-simulated mosquito sounds. The artist
Schloss Solitude (2020), Villa Ruffieux in Sierre, manipulated these recordings with an artificial
Switzerland (2018) and the Centre for Contemporary Art intelligence software that harmonized the chaotic E M E K A O G B O H connects to places with
Andratx, Mallorca (2015). mosquito buzz to approach a “humanized” sensation, a his senses of hearing and taste. Through his audio
quasi-human voice. The composition evokes the circular installations and gastronomic works, Ogboh explores
15 M A G D I M O S T A F A movements of a cyclone and the terror that a mosquito how private, public, collective memories and histories
Sound Cells tornado might provoke. are translated, transformed and encoded into sound
Sound Installation, two washing machines and four tone and food. These works contemplate how sound and
generators, 2021 V I V I A N C A C C U R I uses sound as a vehicle to food capture existential relationships, frame our
cross experiments in sensory perception with issues understanding of the world and provide a context
Sound Cells is an abstracted evocation of the artist’s related to history and social conditioning. Through in which to ask critical questions on immigration,
neighborhood in Cairo. In the installation, old, worn objects, installations, and performances, her pieces globalization, and post-colonialism. Ogboh has
and sometimes even hand-made washing machines create situations that disorient everyday experience participated in numerous international exhibitions
of different kinds and sizes (all acquired from homes and, by extension, disrupt meanings and narratives including documenta 14 (2017), Athens and Kassel,
in the artist’s neighborhood) appear in the space and seemingly as ingrained as the cognitive structure itself. Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017), the 56th edition of
carry a part of Cairo's soundscapes. Each machine is She has developed projects in many cities in Brazil and La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2015), and Dakar Biennale
accompanied with a single microphone that listens and abroad, including the Amazon, Accra, Detroit, Helsinki, (2014).
amplifies the sonority of each interior of the washing Vienna, Veneza, Kiev, Valparaíso and more.
machine/sound cell, transforming the empty vessels
S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 6 / 2 4 S A V V Y Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas HERE HISTORY BEGAN. TRACING THE RE/VERBERATIONS OF HALIM EL-DABH 20.03.–09.05.2021 01 7 / 2 4You can also read
