Antonio Jose Guzman

Electric Dub Station (Orbital Ignition) - A monumental installation consisting of Ajrakh block printed Indigo tye textiles and parametric cubes. Artists: Oscar Murillo, Ibrahim Mahama, Mithu Sen, Antonio Jose Guzman.

Electric Dub Station (Orbital Ignition) by Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic & Parliament of Ghosts by Ibrahim Mahama.

This site-specific installation and procession investigates the transatlantic colonial history of indigo, related to its production on plantations in Suriname, The Americas, Java and in Europe, including the Gelderland province of Arnhem. Orbital Ignition is part of the Electric Dub Station Series in which Antonio José Guzmán and Iva Jankovic research cultures of the Black Atlantic (Paul Gilroy) and Migratory Aesthetics (Mieke Bal).

For the past 15 years, Antonio Jose Guzman has been working on post-colonial theoretical art research involving his Panamanian background and his connection with multiple ancestral places in the world. Electric Dub Station investigates the transatlantic, colonial history of the color indigo, which is related to production on Surinamese plantations, Javanese plantations, Europe, the Netherlands and Gelderland.

Research into the history of indigo work is at the same time research into the alternative history of the Dutch nation. Indigo finds its origin in India. The African slave trade made it particularly valuable, the Indigo gunpowder was more powerful than the gun, because it was literally used as a means of payment.

African slaves transferred the knowledge of indigo cultivation to America. In the 1700s the profit of indigo was greater than that of sugar and cotton. 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 music frequencies were strongly influenced by the African rhythm and led directly to the Blues in the United States, Rumba in Cuba, Cumbia in Colombia, Bossa nova in Brazil and Dub in Jamaica. Dub is the heart of Reggae music and Reggaeton.

The impact that Dub has had on contemporary music production can hardly be overestimated. Electric Dub Station is a site-specific installation labyrinth and a Panamanian-Congolese procession. The project is produced for Sonsbeek and the Paiz Art Biennial, Guatemala, and consists of five hundred banner pieces and twenty Afro Futuristic Costumes, made with textile designer Iva Jankovic, the Guatemalan women's weaving cooperative: Trama Textiel and Indigo master Sufiyan Khatri. The costumes and the procession dance are inspired by the traditional rituals of the Maroon people of the Americas and the Sun Ra philosophy (The Father of Afro Futurism).

The Dub Sonic structure of Electric Dub Station is composed using Guzman's Panamanian DNA, mixed with Dub echoes, and loops and sounds from Maroon communities. A Dub Poetry work will be simulated during the procession. The installation takes the form of a reading passage, derived from books that reflect the tragic indigo colonial history on the plantations and its global economic impact on today's economy.

Photos: Django van Ardenne, Natascha Libbert, Marliese Steeman, Victor Wennekes.

Electric Dub Station is an installation, but also a Panamese-Congolese procession. Dub music sounds in the heart of the procession, a style of music originating from Reggae, and of the African roots of many modern-day music styles. Guzman (Panama, 1971) worked his DNA into the repetitive pattern of blockprinting, sprinkled over the fabric in Indigo blue.

For the opening of Electric Dub Station at sonsbeek 20→24, Guzman will hold a performance titled Indigo Rebels Unlimited, dedicated it to the people scattered in the African Diaspora in the Americas. He will evoke not only his own DNA, and will use music made of his own DNA, but also he will recite the names of slave's families and owners of Indigo plantations in Surinam, as well as calling to the Orisha spirits to bless the future, linked to Yoruba religion.

As Guzman leads the procession of dancers and musicians all dressed in the Indigo pattern of his DNA design, while the clothes are designed by Iva Janković. The procession looks like a linear shaped rave. It follows the rules of a choreography, still leaving room for improvisation.

All follow the leader in full attire, robes in the Indigo blue block print, same as the installation in the Eusebius church. He recites his DNA code while standing in the front of the procession. This shape serves as a symbolic gateway to the world, as well as providing the ideal platform for his role as a shaman.

Orbital Ignition is a monumental installation consisting of Ajrakh block printed Indigo tye textiles and parametric cubes. This site-specific installation and procession investigates the transatlantic colonial history of indigo, related to its production on plantations in Suriname, The Americas, Java and in Europe, including the Gelderland province of Arnhem. Orbital Ignition is part of the Electric Dub Station Series in which Antonio José Guzmán and Iva Jankovic research cultures of the Black Atlantic (Paul Gilroy) and Migratory Aesthetics (Mieke Bal).

For the past 15 years, Antonio Jose Guzman has been working on post-colonial theoretical art research involving his Panamanian background and his connection with multiple ancestral places in the world. Electric Dub Station investigates the transatlantic, colonial history of the color indigo, which is related to production on Surinamese plantations, Javanese plantations, Europe, the Netherlands and Gelderland.

Research into the history of indigo work is at the same time research into the alternative history of the Dutch nation. Indigo finds its origin in India. The African slave trade made it particularly valuable, the Indigo gunpowder was more powerful than the gun, because it was literally used as a means of payment.