Installations
From the 8th of September to the 24th of November, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana presented a comprehensive programme featuring installations, archives and performances by the participants of the edition.
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Immortal Smell
- TypeInstallation
- ParticipantMartin Toloku
- VenueMonastery of Sant Cugat
Immortal Smell, 2024 © Martin Toloku. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Cecília Coca
The Ghanaian artist Martin Toloku comes from a long line of woodworkers, including timber merchants, carpenters and crafters. At an early age, his father and grandfather indoctrinated him into the family trade. In his artistic practice, he carves portraits of his ancestors, who he believes are present within wooden beams. Through the carving process, he summons his relatives’ spirits, engaging them as collaborators in his artmaking. In this way, the artist’s predecessors, who passed on essential knowledge to him, animate his body of work. His choice of materials helps him to channel their spirits; for the three sculptures on view, he sourced the beams from a 300-year-old farmhouse, which was slated for renovation.
Also interested in performance, Toloku explores the body as another sculptural layer of his work through live dance enactments. For the performance that he conceived to activate his totemic sculptures and delivered during the opening of the biennial, he learned to dance flamenco in Barcelona, realising that its movements and rhythms are similar to those of his tribe’s traditional dances. Movement and rhythm thus become supplementary tools for evoking, comprehending, communicating with and caring for the past.
Immortal Smell, 2024 © Martin Toloku. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Cecília Coca
2024
Sculpture: wood; performance
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and supported by Ammodo
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