Al Mujahid

Sound Installation     

Dakar, Senegal 2018

 

Yara Mekwawi's new work sculpts sound from found objects and instruments amplified through speakers creating a conversation between the sound of now and the sound of then. She invites listeners to interact directly with the piece and its components, posing an important question about the human-centric compass of listening, and therefore the lack of it. Those new noises which have proliferated in our soundscapes in recent history, greatly influence how we listen and hear our sonic pasts, and how we consequently relate to today's current social and geopolitical present. Mekawei's intention with this work is to remind listeners and the audiences that we do not only hear but also listen. With that in mind, she works with simple technology which allows us to refocus our listening practice to sculpted elements out of sound, to strip down such assumptions by providing listeners with experience and capacity to create/recreate sound through physical interaction.

 

The Kora, Djembe/Jembe, Kalimba, Udu, The Talking Drum, Marimba, Balafon, Mbira, Shekere, and Algaita, are considered to be the most acoustic instruments found across the African continent. Such instruments are produced mainly from wood which makes their amplification very powerful even if unplugged. The spiritual connection between rhythm in African music and the Muslim muwāshshaḥāt, the emergence of the spirit of God from musical rhythms enhances the idea of prayer by music. The listener is free to make a sound any way they'd want to, through the ionic interaction of the deconstructed and reconstructed instruments and various elements found in the sound corridor. The manipulation of the acoustic instruments also creates a new visual representation of those same instruments.

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I started my research ( Al Mujahid / المجاهد ) in Cairo Egypt 2016, this research is based on recording the ceremonies of Sufi celebrations in different areas in Cairo with many groups, this research led me to Europe to Zurich, Switzerland through my residency in the beginning of this year to meet the Arab immigrants in Switzerland, record their Sufi meetings, and how they are different from what I saw in Egypt and what I heard about in North Africa. Hence the desire to return to Dakar, Senegal; one of the largest African countries that include the mystical Sufi party in Africa and the followers of the Sufi doctrine.

Then came an invitation from Savvy Gallery in Berlin to participate in Dakar Biennial 2018 with the theme of ( Halem El Dabh ) the legend of the sound art in Africa, one of his projects he did in Dakar on the theme of African music; with his records in the big market in Dakar (Sengada) he built his soundtracks, which it is the same way I compose my soundtracks, So I was so interested to work on this project through my research and have the opportunity to show for the second time in Dakar Biennial.

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In spite of this, I went to Dakar before, but that time was different, I looked at the city from a different perspective, and I used various tools to hunt the sound from many phenomenal spots in the city. I will not forget this experience, not only because of this project and research which I am still working on; but also because of what happened in the exhibition setup. Two days before the opening I was almost finishing my setup, the installation should setup between two big trees in the garden of the IFAN museum, then the coordinator of the project called me while I setting on a chair under one of the big trees, she needs me to see something inside the building, I said yes and after around 5 seconds the tree falls on the ground! fall on my chair! fall with all the objects of my installation! I took some hours to realize the situation, then I decided to use the tree which falls on the ground as the main object in my installation.

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Interview with Salym Fayad @ FRANCE 24

Watch here