Unpostponable : Music, Memory and Community

Published by on

Unpostponable: Music, Memory and Community

Unpostponable involves a series of artistic residencies and exchanges between organisations and collectives from the Gulf of Tribugá and organisations and collectives from other contexts that can contribute to the autonomous and sustainable future of the communities in this region. It is an initiative of Más Arte Más Acción as part of its commitment to the different spaces of dialogue and articulation that have taken place within the framework of the Alianza Nuquí, a community and inter-institutional alliance that contributes to the collective wellbeing of the territory in order to confront the threat of the Port of Tribugá.

Given the proposal to participate in the series of artistic residencies developed by Más Arte Más Acción in the territory of the Gulf of Tribugá, from Sonidos Enraizados we have proposed to initiate the participatory construction of a cultural memory bank of some of the communities of the Gulf of Tribugá (Nuquí, Panguí, Tribugá, Coquí and Joví) focused on sound cultural practices. This project aims to re-signify the cultural practices of the community in which the traditional and the popular coexist with the contemporary, both in their aesthetic aspect and in their practice itself. All these forms make up the culture of this community and documentation is an important key to the preservation and strengthening of their own culture.

The residency is committed to using technology as an element of social mobilisation that allows the community to unite around the valuation, recognition and care of their cultural practices.

We hope that this archive will become an input for community use; the Memory Bank is created primarily for circulation within the community. It may eventually circulate in other scenarios to contribute to the construction of knowledge and memory, as long as it seeks to benefit the community, is agreed with them and seeks to defend their rights, which have been strongly threatened by projects related to national policies.

Musica Memoria y Comunidad, the first residency, records and documents local music that expresses, reflects and narrates the territory, transmits the landscape. It takes the form of a dialogue between the Colectivo Sonidos Enraizados and the traditional composer Andrés “Landero” Murillo who, through his music, narrates the diversity of the territory of Nuquí.

This study group had as an articulating axis the crossover between cultural practices, community and territory; with listening sessions, readings and the knowledge of the Nuquí community and Sonidos Enraizados as a base material for the dialogue.

In the first meeting, “Approximations to the music of the Gulf of Tribugá”, a presentation was made between Sonidos Enraizados and the community of Nuquí.

The second session: “Living traditional music in the department of Chocó: song and responsorial chants as mediation between the local and the global. Influences, history, contexts and identifications”, with the support of readings on Chocó music, focused on the notions of composition and spiritual music such as the alabaos.

To close, there was a detailed listening session of materials from the region selected by Sonidos Enraizados.

Finally, the memory bank brings together a collection of 157 recordings with contributions from 10 groups and musicians.

This project is part of the Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change programme, funded by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and the Goethe Institut.