Listening to Echoes of the South Atlantic

Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic is an interdisciplinary exhibition that features the work of Cássio Bomfim, Jeannette Ehlers, Anita Ekman, Satch Hoyt, William Kentridge & Neo Muyanga, Camille Norment, Dawit L. Petros, and Nyugen E. Smith. The exhibition includes a combination of videos, sound- based sculptures, installations, and performances that convey the importance of sonic politics in relation to the entangled histories of the South Atlantic.

Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic explores the political, social, and cultural implications of music in contemporary art. The deep interconnectivity between music and history is the underlying narrative of the 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 significance of music as a collective language of resistance and solidarity.

The exhibition highlights interdisciplinary approaches that reflect a deep understanding of music and its overlapping histories. As the exhibition conveys, music and sound are particularly effective means of bringing history into contemporary space. The sonic heartbeat of the exhibition is found in socially engaged and historically conscious art practices that extend beyond the strict parameters of visual art, music, or performance.

We are invited to experience what Satch Hoyt describes 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, 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 Tibetan monk chants to African American church hymns.

African American musical traditions are at the center of most discourses about musical migrations within the Black Atlantic, and rightfully so. Shifting the focus ever so slightly, this exhibition places particular emphasis on the social, political, and cultural links between African, Latin American, and Caribbean musical traditions. As such, the exhibition is shaped into a comprehensive narrative that spans hundreds of years, transcending history, belief systems, and cultures.

Curated by Selene Wendt, the exhibition was conceived in response to her participation in the three-year interdisciplinary research project Echoes of the South Atlantic, initiated by Goethe-Institut, (2018-2020). The first stage of the project took place in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil in 2018, followed by Berlin in 2019, and will conclude in Dakar in May.

About the curator

Selene Wendt was educated as an Art Historian at The University of Chicago. She works as an independent curator and writer. She founded The Global Art Project in 2013 as a platform for her work to promote contemporary art across geographic borders, with particular focus on artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.

She has extensive experience curating international exhibitions, each with accompanying publications, including Shirin Neshat Beyond Orientalism; Ghada Amer Reading Between the Threads; Liza Lou Leaves of Glass; and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons Mil Maneras Para Decir Adios, to name a few. Important thematic exhibitions include Art Through the Eye of the Needle (Henie Onstad, 1999), A Doll’s House (Henie Onstad, 2002), Postcards from Cuba: A Selection from the 8th Havana Biennial (Henie Onstad, 2004), Island Revolution: The History of Jamaican Music from Ska to Reggae (a special collaboration with the Experience Music Project, Seattle for Henie Onstad, 2004), Equatorial Rhythms (The Stenersen Museum, 2006), Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art (co- curated with Khwezi Gule, The Stenersen Museum, 2009), The Storytellers: Narratives in International Contemporary Art (curated in collaboration with Gerardo Mosquera, The Stenersen Museum, 2012, and El Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica, Bogota, Colombia, 2013), Mind the Map (Punkt Ø, Galleri F 15, Jeløya, Norway, 2014), Jamaican Routes (Punkt Ø, Galleri F 15, Jeløya, Norway, 2016), The Art of Storytelling (Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2016), Orhan Pamuk: The Art of Fiction (The Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway, 2017), A Sheet of Paper Can Become a Knife (The Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2018-2019), and The Sea is History (The Museum of Cultural History, Oslo 2019). Selene Wendt is an invited participant in the three-year interdisciplinary research project initiated by Goethe-Institut Sao Paulo (2018-2020), which addresses the past, present and future of South Atlantic relations. She is currently writing a book about ‘Entangled Colonial Histories in Contemporary Art’. Forthcoming exhibitions in 2020 include Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic, to take place at Oslo Kunstforening February 6- April 5, 2020, and Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits, to open in September at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. 

Wendt writes regularly for international publications and art journals such as NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art, Duke University Press. www. theglobalartproject.no.

Performance program

In connection with the opening, Nyugen E. Smith did a performance.

A series of live performances will take place at Nordic Black Theatre, Oslo throughout the exhibition period. The events are free of charge. 

13.02.2020, 8 pm, at Nordic Black Theatre
Performance: Cássio Bomfim - Salve Exu Motoboy

CANCELLED: 27.03.2020, 8 pm, at Nordic Black Theatre
Concert and visuals: Neo Muyanga & William Kentridge

CANCELLED: 04.04.2020, 8 pm, at Nordic Black Theatre
Performance: Satch Hoyt - Hair Combing Cycle 1530

A series of focus talks will be organized at Goethe-Institut Oslo, on March 27.

The exhibition is produced in collaboration Oslo Kunstforening, Goethe-Institut and Nordic Black Theatre. With additional support from Fritt Ord.