The two international “echo partners” of soundforum bonn 2024 are the Centre for National Culture (CNC) in Cape Coast and the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. During the three-week residency in Accra and Cape Coast in February 2024, the two City Sound Artists will maintain a close exchange with the local scientists and musicians and realize video and sound recordings in various communities. As a first result, Miki Yui and Stefan Schneider will present an artistic event with guests at the CNC at the end of February 2024. This will be followed by a public talk with guests in the interdisciplinary series at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Cape Coast at the end of their stay.
February 23, 2024 at 13:00
Centre for National Culture (CNC) Cape Coast
Takoradi Road, Cape Coast, Ghana
A Performance
“We are more alike than we are different”
Sound communities in the Central Region of Ghana
Miki Yui & Stefan Schneider (City Sound Artists Bonn 2024) in collaboration with Twerammpon Traditionals (Cape Coast)
At the presentation at CNC an artistic perspectives on the theme of sound communities are shown. A music group specially formed for this project will perform their music, created in collaboration with Twerammpon Traditionals, Cape Coast. Excerpts from the video and audio interviews made during the research are presented as further narratives towards the network of communities.
February 27, 2024 at 14:00
University of Cape Coast, Faculty of Arts
At the presentation at UCC, the artists will discuss with experts from various fields, including Dr. Eric Debrah Otchere (UCC), Gabriel Hansen (music journalist / Music in Africa) and Okyerema Prah (Twerammpon Traditionals) to imagine the sonic future of communities in Ghana. The questions in the discussions at UCC emerged from the research process. What forms of community do we want today, in times when we can hardly build on reliable commonalities and proven forms of understanding? What could new forms of community look like for the challenges of the future? What role can art (in the broadest sense) and sound play in this?
„Modern societies are based on the idea that people, despite the different political and economic conditions or world views, can peacefully live together. How can this succeed when the basic orders in Europe and Africa (for very different reasons) are as shaken as they are at the moment? We urgently need to develop new and even unproved modes of communication to be able to act together regarding the various kinds of local and global challenges.“
The research is based on a series of encounters and exchanges in, through and about sound and communities in Cape Coast and Accra. The project focuses on various communities in and around Cape Coast and the multiplicity of manifestations of sound in the everyday life and in certain religious practises.
During the research in Ghana, the two Bonn City Sound Artists had exchanged with a wide range of music experts, non-academic musicians, music journalists, students, workers, individuals and collectives to gain basic knowledge about the huge diversity of sound and music which exists in modern societies in Ghana.
Besides these interviews they have also made audio recordings from different musical activities, religious ceremonies and labor songs. However, the project does not aim to only document and map existing communities and their sounds, but rather to think about new forms of communication through sound. As the project title suggests, the project supports a pluralist perspective which seeks to establish connections between historically separated fields of sonic knowledge and activity. It is an attempt to initiate and share communication.
The research in Cape Coast (February 2024) will be accompanied by Jason Otoo (Dance and Theater, CNC Cape Coast) and Gabriel Hansen (music journalist, Music in Africa) as well as Kofi Shaphat (PHD candidate at the UCC).
The interview partners include: Okyerema Prah (Twerammpon Traditionals), Eric Debrah-Otchere (UCC), Ms. Jennifer Able Adjahoe (UCC), Dr. Madinatu Bello (UCC), Ewe community in Cape Coast, Eco-Scout (Cape Coast) the archivist at Nketia Archive of Institute African Studies Legon University, Radio Peace (community Radio Winneaba), AFL FM (Collage Radio Cape Coast), Issac Kaledzi (Journalist Deutsche Welle), Gabriel Hansen (Journalist Music in Africa), Elisabeth Johnson (writer) and Kobby Graham (writer, educator and DJ).
Further information soon!
