Exhibition Opening: October 12th, 2021, 7pm
Opening Hours: October 13th – 20th 2021, 3 – 6pm; Sunday closed
Please refer to the current Covid19 Regulations!
a nonsequential sound installation in three parts
On his first visit to the Ghetto Biennale in Haiti, Belgian artist Tom Bogaert heard something familiar in the rara marching music that was being played in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Already doing work exploring the legendary interplanetary jazz legend Sun Ra’s visit to Egypt in the early 1970s, Bogaert read in the dog-eared pages of
an old copy of the Lonely Planet that Sun Ra was also rumoured to have visited Haiti, perhaps ten years earlier, during his so-called ‘lost years.’
It was even said that Sun Ra might have composed his masterpiece, Rocket Number Nine, in Port-au-Prince. What Bogaert heard in
the streets made him believe this could be true and, even more so, he later found out that Rocket Number Nine has its roots in the traditional rara song Fize nimewo nèf.
Bogaert collaborated with the local rara band Kod Kreyòl to study and rehearse the somewhat forgotten Fize nimewo nèf, and a Clocktower Radio sound engineer recorded some of the early morning practice sessions that took place in the garden of the Oloffson Hotel. A while later, Kod Kreyòl performed Fize nimewo nèf at a now legendary concert in downtown Port-au-Prince featuring Masha Dabelka and her Rakete Nummer Neun.
