One Song is a new multiscreen video installation that explores the power of songs that connect us to our roots.
The work examines how songs are carried across borders and continents and yet firmly rooted in the soil of the places they were first sung. It asks how migrant communities can, through the somatic experience of singing, be transported back to the places they left behind.
Commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and conceived by artist Kadir Karababa, it has engaged women from the diverse migrant communities of Hackney, London. It is funded by Hackney Council’s Shoreditch and Hoxton Art Fund and presented in partnership with Museum of the Home.
Participants were recruited through a series of community workshops in Shoreditch and Hoxton in April and May 2022.
Among those taking part were Hackney based women’s groups from Xenia, Refugee Women’s Association, City Connections and Age UK. Workshop attendees were invited to sing one song that reminded them of the place they first called home.
A final group of 15 local migrant and refugee women were then filmed to be part of the installation exhibited at the Museum of the Home from October 25th.
One Song will be exhibited at the Museum of the Home 25th October 2022-5th February 2023
Artist Kadir Karababa says:
“Folk and traditional songs the world over deal with the same universal themes: love, life, death, loss, connection to place and the earth.”
“By asking women from migrant communities to share their songs the piece seeks to make visible the interconnectedness of us all and how, despite the surface differences of race, religion, language and culture, we are all ultimately singing the same song.”
Tom Green for Counterpoints Arts says:
“We’re an arts organisation that works nationally and internationally but our offices are in Hackney and we love to work locally, too.”
“Kadir’s project gets right to the heart of our interest in connecting people across communities through the arts, finding the things in common about migration and displacement that can inspire and move us all.”
Cllr Chris Kennedy, Hackney Council’s Cabinet member for health, adult social care, voluntary sector and culture, says:
“Our investment into the Shoreditch and Hoxton Art Fund for arts and cultural projects is raised from levies placed on new developments, called Section 106 contributions. When shortlisting projects for funding, we wanted to prioritise those which would build better connections between communities.
“In Hackney, we celebrate our diversity and this project really encapsulates that. I’m excited to see One Song come to life at the Museum of the Home this October.”
Kadir Karababa’s practice is both sociopolitically engaged and deeply rooted in his personal experiences of class, identity and collective memory. Encompassing sculpture, print, audio-visual and performative elements his work makes use of archival research, found images and cheap everyday materials that are at hand.
Kadir was born in London in 1985 and has mixed Turkish, English and Cypriot heritage. He lives and works in Hackney. He graduated from Dartington Art School with a distinction in MA Arts and Place.
