The Roots of Our Hands, Deep as Revolt: Entangled Colonialities of the Green

Installation View

The Roots of Our Hands, Deep as Revolt: Entangled Colonialities of the Green

The exhibition at KENU in Dakar marks the launch of a research project on environmentalism, sustainability and colonial entanglements by Nyabinghi Lab.

28. April 2023

Installation View

DAARAY SUUF (The School of the Earth), is a multidisciplinary and collective exhibition that marks the launch of the “The Roots of Our Hands, Deep as Revolt: Entangled Colonialities of the Green”, a 18 month long research and exhibition project initiated by Nyabinghi Lab.

By transforming the space of KENU into a sacred wood, resembling the places of initiatory transmission in Africa, it invites us to revisit the links between humans and the other inhabitants of the earth. To return to the roots, to relearn to listen to the lessons of possibilities that the various Living Beings which constitute and inhabit the earth convey to us thousands of years. The intention is to decolonize the imaginary of modern ecology, by putting forward African perspectives and knowledge in the field of environmentalism, cohabitation and management of natural resources.

By highlighting the close links with the living, it sheds light on how African communities have developed sustainable methods to manage natural resources, long before the arrival of colonization, and how these practices persist today. In doing so, it emphasizes the urgency of valuing them as viable alternatives to the dominant approach of Western ecology.

The invited artists are exploring these issues by focussing on “Takkamtiku” (The Art of Enjoying African Flavors); “Xam-Xamu-Makh” (Termite Knowledge); “I-Saas” (The Tree of Life); “The Ecologies of Sound” and “The Guardians of the Temple”.

nyabinghilab.com

A project by Nyabinghi Lab co-produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Nyabinghi Lab, KENU – LAB’Oratoire des Imaginaires and Chimurenga.
Funded by the TURN2 Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Photo: Jean Baptiste Joire.