Libraries are not silent places. I should know, as I like to sing as a move through the books squeezed onto the shelves I haunt. I don’t know what old Lucius thinks he hears when I sing, perhaps it is beyond the pitiful range his human hearing. He does, however, seem to be open to the presence of sound within library spaces. I often overhear him telling the story of visiting the Gennadius Library in Athens as part of documenta 14 in 2017 and sitting there with headphones on watching and listening to Scottish artist Ross Birrell’s film A Beautiful Living Thing (2015), itself set in the burnt-out ruin of the library in the Glasgow School of Art, where Birrell teaches.
He has other tales to tell of his time in this library, which I will save for another time, but surrounding him was the installation of objects and photographs Learning from Timbuktu by Malian artist Igo Diarra and the Bamako gallery La Medina.
This is the text from fellow Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, born in Timbuktu, that accompanies the page on Diarra and La Medina on the documenta 14 website:
This record [Niafunké] is more real, more authentic. It was recorded in the place where the music belongs: deep Mali. We were in the middle of the landscape which inspired the music and that in turn inspired myself and the musicians. My music is about where I come from and our way of life, and it is full of important messages for Africans. In the West perhaps this music is just entertainment and I don’t expect people to understand. But I hope some might take the time to listen and learn.
In documental halle, in Kassel, Diarra and La Medina installed objects and archival materials related to Farka Touré and a concert by remaining members of his band at Henchel-Hallen. https://www.documenta14.de/en/calendar/23730/ali-farka-toure-band.
Two publications were produced for each of the two installations at documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, and as they are hard to find today, I thought I would make my librarian share slideshows of them in their entieity, accompanied by a radio show called Sounds of Ali Farka Touré.
Enjoy the sounds of the shelves, and imagine me singing along in the background!
