Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic
Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic highlights visual, sonic, and performative art practices that reflect a deep understanding of music and its overlapping histories. As the works in the exhibition convey, music and sound are particularly effective means of bringing history into contemporary space.The sonic heartbeat is found in socially engaged and historically conscious art practices that extend beyond the strict parameters of visual art, music, or performance.
The deep interconnectivity between music and history is the underlying narrative of this exhibition. Building on the importance of music in relation to what Paul Gilroy refers to as “the Atlantic as a system of cultural exchanges”, the exhibition addresses the impact of music as a collective language of resistance and solidarity. The videos, sound-based sculptures, installations, and performances are all connected to the entangled histories of the South Atlantic.
The participating artists guide us on what Satch Hoyt refers to as a journey from slave ship to spaceship. Highlights along the way include the Tupi-Valongo Cemetery, where Pankararu indigenous chants are interspersed with the sounds of gunshots from a favela; the Danish Marienborg residence, with its strong connection to the triangular trade, where Jeannette Ehlers performs a Vodou dance, and a haptic sound installation by Camille Norment that explores sonic interconnectivity conveyed through a soundscape that ranges from subdued humming to deep, rhythmic moaning.