Sisalandia

In this listening session and conversation, Kathleen Bomani will break down – bit by bit, element per element – her sound piece "Sisalandia" which sonically explores landscapes of indigenous land dispossession/ colonial terror/ forced labour or making of labour/ ecocides/ plantation economies through the lens of a plant, Agave Sisalana, whilst connecting with present day atrocities such as the continuing dehumanisation of African migrants by Europe. 

KATHLEEN BOMANI is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and scholar whose work explores the interconnectedness of erasure and memory while confronting the enduring impact of colonialism. Her artistic practice has been shaped by the complexities of migration and displacement, having spent twelve years as an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Born in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania in 1985, she has been intermittently working and residing in Berlin for the past four years. Drawing on extensive research and archival work, including court documents, news articles, and personal testimonies, she seeks to disrupt the official record, offering alternative perspectives that confront systems of violence and erasure. Engaging in a spatial exploration, Bomani's artistic journey reveals the profound importance of forgotten locations that hold collective memories, notions of freedom, and alternative spaces that exist alongside society. Her work emphasises the critical need to metaphorically protect and reconstruct these spaces, ensuring the preservation of memory which exposes injustices that often go by unacknowledged.