Projects
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Studio Sawiro:
Oral History Letter: Leyla's mother, Hawa S.
on the photographic cultures of Mogadiscio. © SITAAD Archive
Sawiro is the Somali name for photographs, a loanword of the arabic ﺗَﺼﻮِﻳﺮ. The ongoing artistic-research project Studio Sawiro aims to interrogate the decline of photography studios in Somalia.
Through photographic experimentation and archival research, the project seeks to trace and preserve endangered visual archives, fostering a dialogue on Somali cultural memory. The project will manifest in various chapters, beginning with a print publication and photographic research project. In 2027, SITAAD will organise a Study Day over two days in Italy for practitioners shaping and animating research on vernacular and studio photography practices in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
Chapter I:
Oral History Letter: Leyla's mother, Hawa S. on the photographic cultures of Mogadiscio
Single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 8 min
Watch here
Transmigrating Cassettes is a sonic container for SITAAD research interventions on dispersed colonial collections which instrumentalises the audio cassette as an archival and discursive tool.
The project was first incubated in the United States through a fellowship undertaken by SITAAD with Soomaal House of Art, the University of Minnesota’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub and the Immigration History Research Center in 2023. The project’s initial public programme was held at Soomaal House of Art, The Hub (Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, and the Africa Center in NYC.The project is now being incubated in Europe, and has been presented at Afterall, Tate and the Recovery Plan.
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© The Recovery Plan
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SITAAD Archive is a repository of Somali visual, literary, sonic and material cultures. The archive is often activated by SITAAD in public programme and exhibition settings to pluralise forms of research and study on Somali collections.
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Studio Sawiro
Studio Sawiro:
Oral History Letter: Leyla's mother, Hawa S.
on the photographic cultures of Mogadiscio. © SITAAD Archive
Sawiro is the Somali name for photographs, a loanword of the arabic ﺗَﺼﻮِﻳﺮ. The ongoing artistic-research project Studio Sawiro aims to interrogate the decline of photography studios in Somalia.
Oral History Letter: Leyla's mother, Hawa S. on the photographic cultures of Mogadiscio
Single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 8 min
Watch here
Transmigrating Cassettes
Transmigrating Cassettes is a sonic container for SITAAD research interventions on dispersed colonial collections which instrumentalises the audio cassette as an archival and discursive tool.
The project was first incubated in the United States through a fellowship undertaken by SITAAD with Soomaal House of Art, the University of Minnesota’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub and the Immigration History Research Center in 2023. The project’s initial public programme was held at Soomaal House of Art, The Hub (Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, and the Africa Center in NYC.The project is now being incubated in Europe, and has been presented at Afterall, Tate and the Recovery Plan.
© The Recovery Plan
Transmigrating Cassettes © SITAAD Archive
SITAAD Archive
SITAAD Archive is a repository of Somali visual, literary, sonic and material cultures. The archive is often activated by SITAAD in public programme and exhibition settings to pluralise forms of research and study on Somali collections.
Leyla Degan’s Archive 2022 © SITAAD Archive