«Ecoute plus souvent les choses que les êtres!»

“Listen more often to things than to people!”
Birago Diop

As part of the second TALKING OBJECTS LAB residency at the Musée Théodore Monod in Dakar, artist and photographer Ibrahima Thiam engages in a dialogue with the objects in the museum's collection, revisiter les objects.

During the first residency in December 2021, artist Viyé Diba explored the language of materials and the knowledge hidden within them. Ibrahima Thiam is fascinated by the language of rhythm and sound of "vibrating" objects, and by sound as a mediator between the visible and the invisible. The photographs created during the residency will be shown as projections in a lecture performance on 26 May 2022 in the Pédagothèque of the Musée Théodore Monod.

«The sabar is a work found in the heritage collection of the Theodore Monod Museum in Dakar.
In Senegal, we have the rhythm with the instrument of the sabar which is a visual and sound language that we can watch and listen.
A language of which it conveys the symbols, the tones and the meanings.
This language as a social use, a vital link that completes us and defines our relationship with life.
The sound of the sabar is a bridge between us and the invisible. This bridge that allows us to cross moments of meditation together, of rest and questioning.»

Ibrahima Thiam

TALKING OBJECTS asks the question: What can knowledge be today beyond European knowledge systems? "The Western archive is exhausted!" says Felwine Sarr. New perspectives and questions are needed to break down colonial thought patterns and Eurocentric, white views that are deeply rooted in the European understanding of culture and knowledge and that continue to shape Europe's interaction with non-European cultures today. The think tank, exhibition and event series TALKING OBJECTS LAB examines forms and practices of knowledge from the African continent and tests strategies of mediation and visualisation. The LAB accompanies the development of the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE, a digital archive for decolonial knowledge production, which is scheduled to go online in 2024.

The TALKING OBJECTS LAB focuses on plural forms of knowledge. Five thematic areas are in the foreground: decolonisation of memory, decolonisation of knowledge, the re-evaluation of objects from colonial contexts, empowerment and opportunities through artistic perspectives, and questions about classical museum forms of preservation and presentation.

REVISITER LES OBJETS is supported by Heinrich Böll Foundation.
The event is part of OFF Dak'art Biennale 2022.

Image by Ibrahima Thiam, Deeglou/Ecoute, Photography, 2022. All rights lie with the artist.

Watch a video of the lecture performance by Ibrahima Thiam below.