to share a dream with the sea

to whisper prayers with each wave
— keep us afloat,

hold onto us, a world awaits,
hold us here, do you hear our dreams

taste our fears and drown them,
raise our dreams to the sky.

may we not raise with them,
may we not drown with our fears.
keep us afloat, will you?

Being a common term in Bengali, “rongin shagor রিঙন সাগর” translates to “colorful  ocean” – here: the ocean as a holder of memories. Our bodies as holders of memories,  which puts us in direct relation to bodies of water.  

“Will you remember to keep us afloat ?” – in turn – poses a question to the ocean that gives and takes and creates a parallel to how and who shapes memory in our  world. Who stays afloat and is remembered to stay afloat? Who will be devoured by  tides and  who is forced to get lost in our collective amnesia? 

Starting with a poem by Afro-German poet May Ayim, Oyouns new artistic intervention rongin  shagor reflects on cultures of memory by exploring the reflective and generative threads of  cultural formations located in the senses of the oppressed body. Retracing and reweaving these  threads are the incessant tasks of cultures that faced colonialism. Collective memory emerges  from language and patterns of collective memory influence language as socially and culturally  shared narrative genres. The project attempts to form a constellation of remembrance and co-re sistance by interweaving cultural responses and transnational dialogue. This multimodal space  will create a rupture between voice and silence, the oral and the visual and an attempt towards  the survival of the sensory cultures in the world today. Taking the shape of a virtual artistic chain  letter, rongin shagor is investigating the concept of heritage by getting others involved in the  discourse of how our history shapes our actions today. A number of multidisciplinary and multi lingual artists will respond to the poem “community” by May Ayim, a progressive thinker and  key figure that shaped the Afro-German movement.