Recap of Oceanic Resonances with Atiyyah Khan, Moe Satt and Fazal RizviRecap of Oceanic Resonances with Atiyyah Khan, Moe Satt and Fazal Rizvi

This event, which was held at the -1 Digital Lab, brought together the work of Atiyyah Khan (journalist and sound expert), Moe Satt (visual and performance artist), and Fazal Rizvi (interdisciplinary artist). The focus was on performances, music and sounds reflecting on memory, resistance and the rituals of belonging in the communities and diasporas of the Indian Ocean. The event was organised by the Colomboscope festival and Nieuwe Instituut’s New Currents programme. It was hosted by Colomboscope guest curator Hajra Haider Karrar and the Nieuwe Instituut researcher and curator Setareh Noorani.

After lunch on the institute’s sunny terrace, guests attended an afternoon of presentations followed by a discussion.

After introducing New Currents, the Colomboscope festival, and the Nieuwe Instituut's collaboration for its upcoming edition, Hajra and Setareh opened the floor to the speakers.

In her lecture/performance A journey into The Sun: Listening to the Revolutionary As-Shams Records, Atiyyah Khan shared her research on South Africa’s As-Shams/The Sun label and its founder, Rashid Vally. In the 1970s, Vally defied apartheid to bring people together through music. This story takes place during one of the most creative periods for jazz in South Africa and follows an Indian immigrant community living in Johannesburg. Atiyyah’s lecture/performance incorporated clips of the vibrant music produced by As-Shams during apartheid.

Rashid Vally was born in 1939 in downtown Johannesburg. He grew up surrounded by music. His father’s shop also served as a recording studio for Indian singers, “with the bags of sugar and flour acting as soundproofing”, according to Attiyah. Later, he set up his own record label, As-Shams/The Sun, the first label in South Africa to focus on Afrasian music, and a record store called Kohinoor.

Both As-Shams and Kohinoor became important places to meet for musicians at a time when apartheid laws restricted contact between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Making and listening to music became acts of resistance. Atiyyah noted that after Rashid’s death in December 2024, there were numerous tributes to him. People from all over South Africa recalled travelling to Johannesburg specifically to visit the only recording studio allowing inter-racial mixing at the time. Atiyyah concluded the talk by explaining how her research on South African jazz has evolved over time.

Fazal Rizvi then spoke about his work on three key projects that connect knowledge about particular places in Pakistan to the (im)material conditions of things that are constantly changing – such as language, rivers, the sea, oceans and borders. Fazal asked whether monuments are useful in expressing struggle and how they might be used for remembrance or to reframe grief.

Fazal’s work focuses on memory, mourning and forgetting. It questions traditional ways of thinking about cultural heritage by pushing boundaries and filling space with sounds. His installations combine sound and other media, while also making connections between his family history, Shia traditions and their evolution as they were carried over oceans to become part of Afrasian cultures. By mixing personal, cultural and collective experiences, Fazal gives his installations multiple layers of meaning and connects them with different places and cultures in the Indian Ocean region.

In the final session, Moe Satt talked about the evolution of his work, which explores the use of gestures as expressions of tradition, empathy and resistance. Moe is part of a prominent generation of Myanmar artists who engage with political history and collective presence through both conceptual and personal artistic perspectives.

Moe began by sharing his cultural and personal background with the audience before explaining his Face and Fingers performances, a project developed during his first artistic residency in Myanmar. In Face and Fingers he explores creating a language based on different placements of the fingers on the face. His research stems from studying hand gestures and the use of hands in dance in different cultures, as well as interactions between animals and humans. Afterwards, Moe described the transformation of Face and Fingers into the project Nothing but Fingers.

After the talks, the speakers were invited to sit with the curators and audience to answer questions about their work and the world of sound and performance art.

Atiyyah Khan’s visit to the Netherlands was made possible by the International Visitors Programme of the Nieuwe Instituut, which promotes knowledge and skill exchange between invited international guests and the professional creative field in the Netherlands.

New Currents: Indian Ocean Futures is a research project by the Nieuwe Instituut that connects a global network of researchers, artists and curators. They work together to explore and map the different stories of the Indian Ocean as ‘currents’, highlighting historical legacies that are still important today. The key aim is to encourage communication and collaboration across the region. This Oceanic Resonances event was a special moment to come together and celebrate the work that has been done there, both in the past and present.

Colomboscope is a Sri Lankan contemporary arts festival and creative platform that brings together different disciplines. The festival works with Sri Lankan artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, social theorists and scientific researchers, presenting a programme each year at important historic sites in Colombo.

Through Oceanic Resonances, the Nieuwe Instituut is collaborating on the ninth edition of the Colomboscope festival. Themed Rhythm Alliances, this edition tunes into the different types of rhythm that are involved in movement. These rhythms can be hidden, new, repetitive or imaginary. They also represent time, a mix of different moments, resistance, hunger, repetition and invocations. Together with artists, sound experts, agitators, performers, academics, activists and cultural practitioners, the festival programme continues its journey of creating productions and gatherings based on images, sound and dance.