Sound and decoloniality

22.04

15.00-21.00

lectures and performances by Natalia Papaeva, Victoria Sarangova, Stas Shärifullin and Marsel Ganeyev

☖ AKTIONSHAUS
Gottlieb-Dunkel-Str. 43/44
Berlin-Tempelhof 12099
8th floor
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16.00 - doors
17.00 - conversation with Stas Shärifullin and Marsel Ganeyev, moderated by Giada Dalla Bontà
18.30 - Natalia Papaeva, Yokhor
19:00 - Victoria Sarangova, Archaeology of Progress
19.30 - HMOT (live)
20:00 - discussion with Victoria, Natalia and Stas, moderated by Giada Dalla Bontà

Sound and music are tightly intertwined with knowledge production and politics (Dalla Bonta, 2023), as they embody the desire for possible futures. Acts of producing sound and listening, of “tuning in, and caring” (Dalla Bonta, 2023) are political acts. Music transmits the experience of the interconnectedness of the world and “creates an inclusive space within which sociopolitical, environmental, and ethical messages can be voiced” (Dalla Bonta, 2023). How can music accompany, comment on, and drive change on a local or even global level? We invite the audience to think about the political potential of music together with artists, researchers and activists from indigenous communities of the territories once colonized by russian empire and still viewed as the part of russia. They will present performative and sound works, as well as results of their research.

☖ AKTIONSHAUS, Gottlieb-Dunkel-Str. 43/44, Berlin-Tempelhof 12099, 8th floor
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Stas Shärifullin and Marsel Ganeyev — Sonorous Şifr: How music helped Bashqorts and Tatars to keep their identity through the centuries of colonial oppression

During the centuries of colonial rule in the neighbouring turkic republics of Tatarstan and Bashqortostan Russian authorities have been using a variety of socio-political tools designed specifically to erase ethnical identities of Bashqorts and Tatars. Maintained by brutal authoritarian oppression, these tools were set to control the languages, religions and cultures by constraining their development, appropriating their meaning and forcely putting them into the exotic framework ‘comfortable’ for the Russian Empire (and later, the USSR and Russian Federation). However, it was exactly the colonisers’ disparaging perception that made it impossible to grasp the indigenous knowledge and memory, as they both situated themselves outside the bounded domain of colonial worldview. The talk and listening session are set to explore these and many other issues related to the traditional sonic practices of татарлар and башҡорттар.

Talk and listening session (60 min + Q&A)

Natalia Papaeva — Yokhor (2018)

I forgot my mother tongue. And I am not the only one. Many people in my native Buryatia (Siberia) are losing their language. The Buryat language is one of nearly 2600 languages likely to disappear. Of all 6000 languages in the world, 43% are endangered and I am going through this process myself. In my performance, I am singing two sentences from a Buryat traditional song. The only two sentences I remember.

Live performance (11 min)

Victoria Sarangova — Archaeology of Progress

"Elista" is the third part of the series of the site specific sound works focusing on the ideas of progress and their colonial nature. This part of the project is the most personal as it is rooted in the site of Victoria's birthplace and involves affects, promises, memories, tensions and flips associtated with spatiality and resonated in artist's body.

Site specific sound work, live (30 min)

About the participants:

Giada Dalla Bontà is a researcher, curator and writer working at the intersection of art, sound and politics with a focus on unofficial Soviet and post-Soviet art and music; art and politics; underground cultures and experimental music. She is based in Berlin and Copenhagen, where she holds a PhD fellowship at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the Sound Studies Lab. She recently organized the symposium WHAT SOUNDS DO - New Directions in an Anthropology of Sound in Copenhagen, and SOUNDEAST- Sonic Inquiries Into Cultures from Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia.

Marsel Ganeyev is a Tatar language queer activist from Kazakhstan, currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden, doing his PhD in Medical Science. He is trying to consolidate both Queer and Kazakh/Tatar aspects of his activism in his projects by exploring queer narratives in the context of language.

Stas Shärifullin, aka HMOT, is a musician, researcher and artist working with sound. Born in Central Siberia, with Bashqort roots, Stas is studying the decolonial potential of various musical and listening practices focusing on the political agency of sound and methods of militant sonic ethnography: action-as-research, research-as-action.

Natalia Papaeva is a performance artist from Buryatia, Western Siberia. Her fascination lies in how people express their emotions through songs, stories, and sound. While her work isn't linear, it follows her curiosity to find out: what happened? Why did it happen? ‘What would happen if I opened my mouth’? Natalia earned her degree from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and has won multiple awards, including the TENT Academy Award. In 2021, she held a solo exhibition called 'ik ben' at VHDG in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Natalia has also participated in many group exhibitions and festivals across the globe. She is currently doing her residency at Rijksakademie.

Victoria Sarangova is a multimedia artist from Kalmykia, Russia, currently based in Berlin. She studied at Central Saint Martins London and Kunst in Context at UdK, Berlin. Through media of sound, documentary film, installation, hand embroidery, radio art and performance - among others - her practice aims to elaborate her personal experience of in-between position through the prism of the present cultural and political context. Memory and affects, identity, and ideas of 'progress' are among the topics she currently engages with.

Accessibility:

You can join the event at any time. Aktionshaus is reachable by bus number 277 from S-Bahn Hermannstraße. There are no cafe's around, so feel free to bring your own food and snacks. We will provide some savory and sweet snacks and there will be a bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. After the event we will also serve tea.

The venue is on the 8th floor, you need to use the elevator on the left. There is no accessible toilet at Aktionshaus, but perhaps there is one in the building. We are researching this and will inform you if we find one! Before the entrance there is a small step around 5 cm tall.

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