Who holds the agency to share knowledge in a transnational context?
Does this knowledge claim its own agency?
Bodies of Knowledge foregrounds the embodied knowledge that exists beyond, and in spite of, traditionally eurocentric ways of knowing. The practices of Bint Mbareh and Barney Pau converge for the first time in an installation that invites each participating body to vocalise what it knows, manifesting its knowledge of ritual, oral history, and language into shared space. An interactive moment of exchange allows the embodied to assert its own validity, making way for an individualised experience of knowledge beyond conventional boundaries.
Between June 19th and 24th, 2024, the Bodies of Knowledge exhibition featured tanks hosting ferments prepared by Barney Pau, which were in dialogue with a sonic piece created by Bint Mbareh — and built upon by every visitor. An observant colony of ferments reacted in real time to the visiting voices, reverberating its response back to the viewer.
The sonic stimuli were based on sounds produced in the choir workshop "Mouthful of Voice" on May 29, 2024. We owe immense gratitude to the 15 co-creators who lent their voices to this project.
We would like to thank the CCA team—the tutors and staff, as well as colleagues—with special thanks to Laura Valles Vilchez.
Practitioners:
Bint Mbareh
Barney Pau
Collaborator:
Abdulrahman Salih
Curators:
Erica Watum
Isabelle Enquist
Huiyu Lan
Sunjoo Jung
Elias Rizek
Ismini Chimona
Alexa Davis
Workshop
Date+Time:
29/5/2024 (Wed)
19:30-21:30
The Tabernacle
W11 2AY
The choir practice led by Bint Mbareh and Barney Pau is designed for non-musicians interested in exploring their voices in an improvised group setting, in a coming-together of voices that draws inspiration from the sounds of protest.
All current sounds are echoes of past sounds. Sounds are made absent by alienation, atomisation, carceral states, ecosystem degradation, and obsolescence. Though all sounds are ephemeral—an aspect that compels us to listen intently, knowing they will soon fade—they also leave traces through resonance and echo. By becoming aware of this echoing, can we also become aware of our agency over what and how we echo? Can we recognize that we are mediums, like air or water, for other absented bodies through sounded language and other sounds?
In this iteration of the choir, Bint Mbareh’s sonic practice merges with Barney Pau’s olfactory practice, moving beyond the choir’s anthropocentric conception, where humans envelope themselves in their own — distinctly human — sounds. The sounds of fermentation will make a rare appearance in choir, inviting our bodies to be porous to the information available to us through the living cultures. This interaction encourages us to respond sonically, confronting and activating the shame around pleasure and disgust, and expressing the sounds of both in tandem with the ferment(s).
Material
Ferment powders that were offered:
Banana Champagne Recipe (resulting in an approximately 2-5% ABV beverage)
Ingredients:
x1 Large bowl or bucket
x1 2 litre Plastic or glass bottle
450 grams Granulated white sugar
1 kg Bananas (approximately 7 bananas - yellow and ripe. Not green, soft or brown)
1.8 litres Water
x1 Packet of ferment starter (Hogweed, Mixed Prunus Blossom, or Gorse and Broom Blossom)
x1 funnel
x1 large spoon
x1 strainer
Directions
Preparing the sugar-water mixture:
Preparing the ferment:
7. Remove any packaging or stickers from the bananas, then wash and dry them. Do not remove the banana peels, as they are an essential part of the fermentation process.
8. Chop all of the bananas (with their peels still on) into thick, 1-2 centimetre wide discs.
9. Half (or quarter) the banana slices, so that they are small enough to fit into the bottle.
10. Put all of your banana slices into the bottle.
11. Pour the packet of ferment starter into the bottle.
12. Using the funnel, pour the cooled sugar-water mixture into the bottle, making sure to leave a clearance of 5 centimetres from the mouth of the bottle, to where the liquid begins. This is to account for the bubbling that will happen during the fermentation process.
13. Use the back of a spoon to push any banana slices down, making sure that all of the bananas are under the liquid level.
14. Close the bottle with its cover.
15. Place the bottle in a warm place, and away from any sunlight (preferably in a dark cupboard).
- Hogweed (less fine, darker powder)
- Mixed Prunus Blossom (the finer, brown powder)
- Gorse and Broom Blossom (the finer, yellow powder)
Banana Champagne Recipe (resulting in an approximately 2-5% ABV beverage)
Ingredients:
x1 Large bowl or bucket
x1 2 litre Plastic or glass bottle
450 grams Granulated white sugar
1 kg Bananas (approximately 7 bananas - yellow and ripe. Not green, soft or brown)
1.8 litres Water
x1 Packet of ferment starter (Hogweed, Mixed Prunus Blossom, or Gorse and Broom Blossom)
x1 funnel
x1 large spoon
x1 strainer
Directions
Preparing the sugar-water mixture:
- Boil half of the water (900 litres). While the water is boiling, pour the sugar into the large bowl or bucket.
- Pour the boiled water over the sugar.
- Stir the mixture to assist with dissolving the sugar every few minutes.
- Let the mixture sit for 1 hour.
- Pour the remaining water that has not been boiled (900 litres) into the same large bowl or bucket.
- The sugar-water mixture must be completely dissolved and cooled before you can proceed. Using a hot or warm sugar-mixture will not result in the desired outcome.
Preparing the ferment:
7. Remove any packaging or stickers from the bananas, then wash and dry them. Do not remove the banana peels, as they are an essential part of the fermentation process.
8. Chop all of the bananas (with their peels still on) into thick, 1-2 centimetre wide discs.
9. Half (or quarter) the banana slices, so that they are small enough to fit into the bottle.
10. Put all of your banana slices into the bottle.
11. Pour the packet of ferment starter into the bottle.
12. Using the funnel, pour the cooled sugar-water mixture into the bottle, making sure to leave a clearance of 5 centimetres from the mouth of the bottle, to where the liquid begins. This is to account for the bubbling that will happen during the fermentation process.
13. Use the back of a spoon to push any banana slices down, making sure that all of the bananas are under the liquid level.
14. Close the bottle with its cover.
15. Place the bottle in a warm place, and away from any sunlight (preferably in a dark cupboard).