Nov 01–17, 2019
Afro-Sonic Mapping
Tracing Aural Histories via Sonic Transmigrations
Exhibition, concerts, talks
Nov 1–17, 2019
Daily 11 am–7 pm, Thu 11 am–10 pm
Free admission
What musical patterns have been preserved in the sounds of the African Diaspora, thus defying time and forced migration? What sonic affinities exist between Luanda, Lisbon and Salvador da Bahia, or between Dakar, Cali and Lima? How did postcolonial appropriations and transfer processes become inscribed in contemporary rhythms across the Atlantic and beyond?
The artist and musician Satch Hoyt takes early music recordings from Angola and the Congo documented by European anthropologists between 1890 and 1907 as the starting point for his project. He perceives them as acoustic mappings of history – testimonies of enslavement and expulsion, but also of resistance, empowerment and liberation. Hoyt brings those early recordings back to their places of origin and traces the sounds of the African Diaspora as far as music scenes of the lusophone triangle across Luanda, Salvador da Bahia and Lisbon. Together with local musicians from the postcolonial cities, he searches for musical connections between the historical recordings and present-day urban rhythms, creating new musical compositions. At HKW, Hoyt presents the various collaborations and outcomes of his research travels in talks, sound-performances, concerts and an exhibition of sonic compositions, video-interviews and paintings that act as unfixed graphic scores, celestial constellations and cartographic displays of the African Diaspora. More about the project...
Curated by Paz Guevara
Part of Kanon-Fragen
