Blackness is a journey, reaching the destination is not an easy voyage. Reconstructing our identity is a trip back to our roots.’
Sonic Indigo, an Afrofuturistic Voyage Into Dub (part of the Electric Dub Station series) (2020)
For Refresh Amsterdam, Antonio José Guzman worked together with visual artist and designer Iva Jankovic. They reinterpret the transatlantic heritage of Indigo dye, which is deeply connected with the colonial history of the Dutch nation. Indigo has its origins on different continents: South America, Africa, and Asia. The African slave trade in particular made it valuable. For thousands of years, indigo symbolised both political power and is still used by Africans in rituals against evil spirits.
The sonic structures and songs that Africans sang on the indigo, sugar, and coffee plantations had a profound influence on the history of the Americas. Electric Dub Station is a labyrinthine, site-specific decolonisation installation and a conceptualised Panamanian-Congolese procession.
Refresh Amsterdam is a biennial initiative of Amsterdam Museum in which contemporary makers with an artistic practise give their perception on metropolitan themes. The first edition is organised in collaboration with De Appel, CBK Zuidoost, Compagnietheater, OSCAM, Rijksakademie, SEXYLAND en The Black Archives.
Photos: Marlise Steeman - Iva Jankovic - Monique Vermeulen