While traveling Dakar with Karima, Nika and Martin, each of us wanted to know how this city sounds. Being used to the soundscape of the Senegalese capital, Dakar seemed too noisy to me. While slaloming through its alleys, I was certainly interested in different sounds but I did as if it would say a fixation on metallic sounds. The din of the capital sometimes veils sounds of lucid harmony or charming curiosity.

With the permission of Carsten, Marion and Stephan I invaded the room which I used as a dormitory of various materials for the needs of my installation.

8 calabashes, 4 infusion bottles, 3 canaries of different sizes, 2 speakers, 1 bowl (stainless steel), 1 tube (stainless steel), 1 pot (stainless steel) and 1 saucepan, 1 rubber bottle, 1 barrel (with a tap) and 1 hose.

Infusion bottles filled with water hang from the ceiling. They plunge half into gourds at the end of which pass through syringes of infusion. These syringes pee, at a slow and regular interval, drops of water which fail on various containers. There is a metal bowl, a large, medium and small canary that forms a triangle in the center of the room. A tube amplified by a loudspeaker above which floats a pot attached to a nail on the ceiling. Another cabinet is placed outside at the foot of the window to create the visual effect. The goal is to create acoustics that will intervene in the resonance of the room.

The installation “Emitaï” invites you to focus on the voices of nature as well as on the subtle and innocent sounds of Dakar. This sound installation is also in a way a tribute to the cultural particularities of my village (Katoudié). There, at dusk, we expose canaries, calabashes and other containers filled with water to the heart of the sacred wood to express our gratitude to nature and magnify its mercy.