Projects
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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Studio Sawiro Sawiro is the Somali name for photographs, a loanword of the arabic ﺗَﺼﻮِﻳﺮ. The two year artistic-research project (2024-2026) Studio Sawiro aims to interrogate the decline of photography studios in Somalia.
Manifesting as an itinerant archive with a discursive programme, the project situated in a broader genealogy of research on destroyed, discarded and at risk collections of African studio photography. It examines the introduction of analogue practices to Somalia through colonial photography and anthropology, and explores how pan-Africanism and socio-cultural aspirations shaped the cultures of image-production in post-independence Somalia. In 2026, SITAAD will organise a Study Day over two days in Italy for practitioners shaping and animating research on African, Diasporic and Indian Ocean photographic practices.
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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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
Studio Sawiro
Mogadiscio anni 80’ - Mogadishu 80es Sempre infinitamente,
Always Infinitely, Finche vivo! - Until I die! Intaan Noohalay.
Leyla Degan’s family archive. © SITAAD Archive
Always Infinitely, Finche vivo! - Until I die! Intaan Noohalay.
Leyla Degan’s family archive. © SITAAD Archive
Studio Sawiro Sawiro is the Somali name for photographs, a loanword of the arabic ﺗَﺼﻮِﻳﺮ. The two year artistic-research project (2024-2026) Studio Sawiro aims to interrogate the decline of photography studios in Somalia.
Manifesting as an itinerant archive with a discursive programme, the project situated in a broader genealogy of research on destroyed, discarded and at risk collections of African studio photography. It examines the introduction of analogue practices to Somalia through colonial photography and anthropology, and explores how pan-Africanism and socio-cultural aspirations shaped the cultures of image-production in post-independence Somalia. In 2026, SITAAD will organise a Study Day over two days in Italy for practitioners shaping and animating research on African, Diasporic and Indian Ocean photographic practices.
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