{"id":6743,"date":"2025-10-31T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/i-am-a-black-ocean-project\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:22:04","slug":"i-am-a-black-ocean-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/i-am-a-black-ocean-project\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Am a Black Ocean” Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As part of Sacatar\u2019s participation in the Year of France in Brazil, we are thrilled to play a central role in the project I Am a Black Ocean<\/strong>, which promotes residencies, exhibitions, performances, and roundtables in Bahia featuring artists from Senegal, France, and Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this project, Sacatar hosted four artists: Salimata Diop, Aline Motta, Nathalie Vairac, and Shai Andrade (Shai’s residency had the support of the Secretary of Culture of Bahia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are especially proud to be part of this multilateral and tricontinental collaboration, as the project originated from a former Fellow\u2019s residency at Sacatar. The French-Cameroonian artist Beya Gille-Gacha was in residence with us last year, and the impact of that experience \u2014 along with the connections she made here \u2014 became the conceptual and institutional starting points for a project that is now coming to fruition and bringing together many other organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the events connected to I Am a Black Ocean is the exhibition \u201cThe Way of the Turtle,\u201d a solo presentation of Beya\u2019s works initiated during her time at Sacatar. The exhibition will be on view at Alliance Fran\u00e7aise in Salvador, starting November 6th. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transcontinental project of residences, exhibitions, and artistic performances Eu Sou Um Oceano Negro (ESUON) <\/strong>reactivates and honors the memory of the Atlantic Ocean, no longer as a \u201cslave route\u201d (the transatlantic slave trade, which deported around 12.5 million Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries), but as an oceanic matrix and a \u201ccommon good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afro-eco-feminist engagement<\/strong> emphasizes the interconnection between the oppression of women, the exploitation of the Earth, and imperialism. ESUON affirms that female power is essential in the face of fragmentation (identity, climate, and social crises). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memorial Reparation:<\/strong> By choosing Salvador, Bahia (Brazil) for its first chapter\u2014a city whose population is largely of African descent and whose heritage is strongly marked by the mass arrival of enslaved people\u2014ESUON anchors its action in an important place of memory for the diaspora. Holding the event around Black Awareness Day reinforces this commitment.
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Counter-narrative:<\/strong> The project combats the historical \u201cerasure\u201d and \u201cburial\u201d of black female pioneers. It replaces the image of passive victims with that of travelers, pioneers, and ancestral guides whose power has never been extinguished. Thus, it creates an active narrative of black female power, breaking with the exclusive focus on suffering.
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The Call to Return: <\/strong>Countries such as Ghana (with the landmark \u201cYear of Return\u201d initiative in 2019, which marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in Virginia, followed by the \u201cBeyond the Return\u201d initiative in 2019, marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in Virginia, followed by the Beyond the Return initiative) and Benin have actively implemented policies to welcome people of African descent, facilitate their access to citizenship, and encourage cultural and economic investment.
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The Spiritual Reconnection:<\/strong> ESUON brings this return to fruition on a spiritual and artistic level. The vision of the reform of the continents (the Cape of Brazil joining the Gulf of Guinea) is a powerful metaphor for the need to \u201cbecome One\u201d again. ESUON proposes a recomposition of what has been separated and broken, not through geopolitics, but through an unprecedented collaborative artistic creation that privileges the trail and the itinerary rather than a single root. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, by making the Atlantic a place of healing and female encounter, ESUON is not just an artistic project, it is a living manifesto that offers the diaspora and the world a model for reconnecting history, spirituality, and the future, necessary for reparation and a more united world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project is supported by the following partners: Greg\u00f3rio de Mattos Foundation, Salvador City Hall Department of Culture and Tourism, Casa Br\u00e1frica, Sacatar, Piv\u00f4 Salvador, Nefe, Space Un Tokio, Alliance Fran\u00e7aise Salvador, Goethe Institut, French Embassy in Brazil, Ministry of Culture, and Institut Fran\u00e7ais.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COMPLETE INFORMATION<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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As part of Sacatar\u2019s participation in the Year of France in Brazil, we are thrilled to play a central role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,14,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fellows-achievements","category-events-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6743"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6813,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions\/6813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sacatar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}