Mogadiscio anni 80’ - Mogadishu 80es Sempre infinitamente,
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.
Transmigrating Cassettes © SITAAD ArchiveTransmigrating 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 first volume was realised in with the support of Soomaal House of Art, the University of Minnesota’s Liberal Arts Engagement Hub and the Immigration History Research Center between August - September 2023. A public programme was held in multiple sites including Soomaal House of Art, The Hub (Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, and the Africa Center in NYC.
Leyla Degan’s Archive 2022 © SITAAD ArchiveSITAAD 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.