Oscam Contemporary Art Museum & Amsterdam Museum
In 2020 Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic started their ongoing project Electric Dub Station (2020 - 2030), an investigation of the transatlantic, colonial history of Indigo.
Indigo is known as the king of dyes. For thousands of years, indigo symbolized both political power and was used by Africans in religious rituals. Indigo was and it’s still use as protection against evil spirits, Indigo is for many the Orisha Yemaja, a major water deity from the Yoruba religion. The U.S star-spangled banner was made with indigo, as was another American classic, the blue jean. Indigo was the hidden commodity of the slave trade before cotton.
The first indigo dyed hemp clothing was the uniform of the enslaved, called “Negro cloth,” and deemed unfit for anyone to wear but the enslaved Black Indigenous American and enslaved African people. in the Americas.
The sonic structures and songs that the Africans sang in the indigo, sugar and coffee plantations had a profound influence on the history of music in America. The impact that Dub has had on contemporary music production can hardly be overestimated.
Guzman & Jankovic - Atelier GF Workstation
Guzman & Jankovic - Atelier GF Workstation