Cosmovisual
From 13.12 website“It's funny in a way because I'm asking you about collaboration and also hearing you talk about how we're all part of the cosmos, (all) that surrounds us... So, by asking you about collaboration, I'm asking you about a speck of dust floating in that cosmos.”
When I said this to Lamine Sonko during our recent conversation about collaboration, I was groping my way towards putting into words something that Lamine had been expressing with fluency. Lamine, an interdisciplinary artist who works in music, film, and storytelling, and producer Olive Moynihan interweave a profound sensibility into their approach to their art.
Lamine and Olive, drawing from an interdisciplinary pool of collaborators, create work via two projects. The Knowing Project “delivers programs that promote wellbeing using the ancient tools of African music and culture” to schools, business, and communities, whereas 13.12 is a platform that sets out to produce “multi-artform experiences and to nurture research that promotes ancient wisdom cultures and global indigenous ways of knowing.” Both projects are informed by a Senegalese cosmovision that is embodied within the musical, dance, and storytelling practices of the guewel, a traditional keeper of culture and lore and a role that has been inherited by Lamine.
We had a fascinating conversation about the arts as a collaboration process and also as a transversal offering to stakeholders outside of the arts sector and I look forward to drawing on it for my upcoming Near and Far articles. But one theme I did notice popping up was that of time and I thought I might share some quotes about that, which have been edited for brevity, from our conversation.
The theme of time came up in relation to a few different things. We talked about:
Deep time and the ageless philosophies and practices of Senegalese tradition:
“Tradition can be old and you have these ancient practices, but the philosophy or the concept behind them is not outdated. I mean, it's relevant to anything. So, we've taken the concepts that exist in these knowledge systems and it can apply to contemporary music. It can apply to contemporary theater or even traditional art can become modern art. I think often we view traditional arts practices as these things that don't change and therefore they don't have a purpose because they were created back then. But really, if you're going into those cultures and learning it, you realize that they do have a very current application that's related to broader wellbeing, community wellbeing, or individual wellbeing.” - Olive
The necessity of allowing time for creative process:
“That's our philosophy. How we've done this work is that we've taken the time with projects to make sure that the artistic concepts are never compromised. That they remain self-determined and deeply considered and researched.” – Olive
“So, it's like through collaboration, you are traveling in time-travel to the future to already see an outcome and then come back again to allow yourself to follow the steps, one by one, to get to that success.” – Lamine
Choosing collaborators with whom you resonate:
“We spend a lot of time looking at the works of our collaborators sometimes before approaching them, just to make sure that we align in philosophies or ways of approaching artworks.” - Lamine
And onboarding collaborators:
“I think we've put in quite a lot of time into educating our collaborators before we start, guiding them so that there's a considerable amount of time and effort put into creating the platform for them to be able to understand the knowledge. And that also includes things like talking through cultural protocols and all of that kind of thing, so that you can't just jump into the collaboration without having done that groundwork.” – Olive
And art as a journey into the future and an experience of the present:
“You know, the art is like that, it is a non-verbal way of sharing your inner understanding or inner ways of feeling. And I think just that paying attention to that - you don't even know what to call it - but that energy is a fantastic way to bring people together and to see that as a purpose of joining together…
And I think it's very, very important, especially with our work, because it's all based on this ancient knowledge system that will stay available for lifetime, really. So, it's just a matter of playing our role and then pass it to the next generation to continue the work. All of that is to try and make sure that we all find commonality or common understanding for joining together.” - Lamine
Absolutely.
Curious? The come along to the free online event I am facilitating to talk about what I heard during my research. It’s on at 6pm, 28 February 2024 AEDT. I’d love to see you there.
And, of course, I would also love it if you bought the book! You can do so HERE!
