Fabrics of Change

In the last episode of season 5, Jan Dammel is in conversation with musician and sound artist Elsa M’Bala. They talk about Cameroonian anti-colonial organisers in Berlin during the interwar period, such as Victor Bell, and what it means for Elsa to work with sound archives in European universities and museums. Learn more about her ongoing project Kribi Archives, which makes ethnographic recordings of Cameroonian music accessible in Kribi, and her general investment in creating listening spaces.

Artist and researcher Rehema Chachage is in conversation with Jan Dammel about mixed-media installations in Johannesburg, Leipzig and Stade. They discuss Rehema’s long-term engagement with her matriline, how songs can serve as “unlikely witnesses to history”, and how the marigold speaks to both colonial uprooting of plants to Tanzania and intergenerational transmissions.

Hörspielmacher:in Joel Vogel und Musiker Vincent Bababoutilabo sprechen über gemeinsame Projekte wie ihren dekolonialen Hörspaziergang zurückERZÄHLT (2020), der Akte des Widerstands von 106 Personen aus den damaligen ‚deutschen Kolonien‘, die im Sommer 1896 im Berliner Treptower Park arbeiteten und lebten, ins Zentrum stellt. Sie berichten von ihrem Umgang mit dem (kolonialen) Archiv, von der Möglichkeit mit Sound gewaltvolle Geschichte anders zu erzählen und davon, wie ihr Audiowalk seit fünf Jahren Menschen versammelt.

Season 5, curated by Jan Dammel, focuses on artistic interventions in Germany that deal with colonialism and its ongoing legacies. This first episode features multi-disciplinary artist Percy Nii Nortey and curator Nadja Ofuatey-Alazard, who collaborated on the group exhibition “Colonial Ghosts – Resistant Spirits” in Berlin’s St. Nicholas Church. Learn more about Nortey’s dialogue with, and celebration of, the working class in Ghana and how bold fabric and sonic artworks, also by Theresa Weber, challenge and transform post/colonial (church) spaces.

In the last episode of this season, Adriana Raczykowski is in conversation with Polish artist and curator Patrycja Rozwora, who founded the Kitchen Conversations Podcast. Patrycja talks about her podcast practice and Eastern European and Central Asian narration in the arts.

Mala Herba and dogheadsurigeri from the Oramics collective meet with Adriana Raczykowski to talk about the politics of the dance floor and sonic spaces curation. Guided by the motto “Your periphery is our center”, they address Western hegemony in contemporary electronic subcultures.

In this episode in Polish language, Adriana Raczykowski is in conversation with Lulla La Polaca, who is widely recognised as the oldest Drag Queen of Poland. She traces back her roots as a performer in times of PPR, and talks about musical inspirations, the importance of friendship and community, and her hopes and wishes for younger generations of drag artists in Poland today.

Season 4 of Sonic Interventions (episodes 14-17) takes listeners to Poland, and is guest-curated by Adriana Raczykowski. She is in conversation with Polish artistists, activists and curators who intervene into society through curation, drag performance, visual arts, and podcasting. This episode features 100Lesb.com, a portrait cycle of one hundred Polish lesbians and non-binary people in Warsaw. Our guest host is in conversation with co-curators Ola Kamińka and Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski. They touch upon reclaiming representation and queer resourcefulness as forms of intervention.

This conversation with Zara Julius concludes our third podcast season dedicated to South African sound art and cultures. The artist shares thoughts on and samples from her exhibition “Whatever You Throw At The Sea” (Weltmuseum Vienna, Austria), and critically reflects on (post)colonial structures in museums and archives in relation to her artistic research.

In this episode recorded at the University of Pretoria, Prof. Nompumelelo Zondi, gives insights into her book on women’s song in rural Zulu culture. She presents an understanding of song as a medium of resistance and resilience, and uses her own voice to share examples.