Festish
2025
installation with a ready-made digital speaker in the shape of a gramophone, 6 chants of african-brazilian spirituality from the begining of 20th century, original wax cylinder from 1904 encrusted with 200 gramophone needles, archival images, altar, selection of textual references
presented as a solo show at Barazani.berlin, curated by Raphael Daibert
Berlin, Germany
The setting challenges the colonial framing of cultural heritage as “fetishes” by revealing that the true fetishizing is the extractive, collecting behavior of European institutions and collectors. The work turns this colonial label back onto those who imposed it, exposing how sacred practices were misrepresented and appropriated through collectionism. By activating this inversion of the gaze, the installation critiques colonial authority and epistemic violence while proposing alternative modes of listening and engagement.
All the objects that form the set were acquired through contemporary collecting channels: marketplaces, antique dealers, “relic” resellers, collectors’ associations, and institutional archive catalogs. This intentional provenance re-enacts — and strains — the contemporary circuit that still profits from coloniality and the domestication of the sacred belonging to others.