Mukalap is based on an unique audio recording from the Anthony Traill Khoisan Collection that captures a spoken message from a man named Mukalap in the now extinct !ora language. In his mother tongue !ora Mukalap calls on an European audience to just for once listen to his beautiful language and to him. The message was played in 1938 during the Third International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Ghent. Mukalap's message is not only an urgent appeal for recognition, he also asked the audience to respond and send him a message in return. That never happened, but with her work Westerveld responds to his request after all. However, she has to rely on other languages, because the last !ora speaker died in 2011 and the grammatical knowledge of the language is limited. The use of both !ora and English, Dutch and Afrikaans emphasizes the legacy of colonial history, which has led to the disappearance or serious marginalization of various indigenous languages. The audio recording of Mukalap's message is used by permission of copyright holder, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
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Live performance during the ICA Live Art Festival 2018, |
Audio installation at Nest, The Hague for the exhibition |
Photo credit: Jhoeko photography
Photo credit: Jhoeko photography