Artist Em’kal Eyongakpa presents an immersive sensory installation featuring contributions from singers and storytellers in Southeast Nigeria, Southern Cameroon and Ireland, as well as intersessions between the Gulf of Guinea and Western Europe. Commissioned by the IMMA and EVA International, the installation can be experienced at the IMMA Formal Gardens, Terrace until 1 August, 2022.
‘Mámbáy bebhɛp 43t / besáŋ berat / bakay nɛkɔ’ is an immersive sensory installation that transcribes audio signals from recordings of lullabies, chants, laments, poems and folk songs. For the 39th EVA International, Eyongakpa wove together voices from across 10 language groups, with contributions from refugee settlements, displacement camps, and rural communities. From more than 25 recordings, the audio was transcribed and layered into a dense composition of vibrations to ebb and flow across a custom-built platform, which at EVA, was presented within a darkened, atmospheric gallery environment.
IMMA now presents ‘Mámbáy bebhɛp 43t / besáŋ berat / bakay nɛkɔ’, with an installation adapted for outdoors, where visitors can interact and experience the physical composition of the installation in the open air. As part of IMMA Outdoors a series of performances will be programmed with the installation, inspired by the gathered recordings and to expand the engagement with Eyongakpa’s project.
Encounters 2020-2022 has been made possible with the generous support of Mondriaan Funds.