EXHIBITION
Owanto : One Thousand Voices
Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
06 Feb 2019 - 30 May 2019
One Thousand Voices, an immersive sound installation by the multi-cultural Gabonese artist Owanto, will be exhibited at The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), February 6th 2019, for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.
One Thousand Voices is a collection of audio testimonies from Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting survivors (FMG/C). Using various languages, some speaking anonymously, most testifying openly, this installation projects sounds and stories of survival and strength derived from cutting. The voices weave together to create one collective story. This ensemble brings to light the complex issues surrounding FGM/C. The mélange of voices, accents, and languages emerge from 27 countries in Africa, parts of the Middle East, Asia, and the ever-growing diaspora, and tackle the very taboos that often leave others silent.
The piece is composed like a symphony —voices are recorded on a smartphone and sent via WhatsApp– with several movements, elements and choruses. The monotonous crackling undertone of a broken record alludes to the coming of a new age – as said in the french idiom “change de disque!” which translates to “change the record!”.
In this exhibition Owanto creates a bridge between visual images (photographs) from the 1940s and sound images (audio testimonies) describing contemporary societies, because for the artist it is vital to weave the past with the present, the analogue with the digital, the artistic with the journalistic. While the flower poetically plays a healing role and attempts to metaphorically change the narrative in Flowers Series –from victims to heroines— the collective voice of women and girls united to say “no more” in One Thousand Voices breaks the silence and literally changes the narrative.
“It all started with found photographs of a female circumcision ceremony hidden in a forgotten drawer. One of these photographs, La Jeune Fille à La Fleur from Flower Series, now hangs on the wall of the second floor of the Zeitz MOCAA and is part of the permanent collection. It stands as a symbol for change. The second series One Thousand Voices, an immersive sound installation where survivors share their stories irrespective of geography, age, colour, religion, or culture, will be heard at The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town.” - Owanto
Curated by Gcotyelwa Mashiqa and Sakhi Gcina, the exhibition highlights gender inequality and the politics surrounding a woman’s body. The collective voice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) survivors reports on the magnitude of the practice, which emerges from patriarchal regimes, perpetuated by matriarcal societies, and questions where women and girls are heading globally in terms of their rights over their own bodies. It calls upon practicing communities to adopt an alternate celebration, an alternative rite of passage devoid of cutting.
The exhibition opens on International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, and will include a discussion about the relevance of art activism and the responsibility placed on global art institutions to consider different ways we can engage with initiation rites, customers and traditions in contemporary society.
Panel discussion featuring:
Owanto: Artist and Human Rights Activist
Katya Berger: Filmmaker and Art Producer
Elisabeth Katamboi: Alternative Rite of Passage Graduate, Activist and Medical Student
Azu Nwagbogu: Zeitz MOCAA’s acting Chief Curator
