April 25 – July 07, 2024
Wednesday, 24. April 2024, 6–9 p.m.
Thursday and Friday, 1–7 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
The exhibition Omi Libations is the result of a collaboration between the artist Tabita Rezaire, the artist-architect Yussef Agbo-Ola, and the biologists Alex Jordan and Anja Wegner from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Konstanz.
The exhibition centers on a structure titled Omi: Yemoja Temple envisioned by the artists which is dedicated to the Yoruba Orisha Yemoja. In the pantheon of the West African Yoruba people, Yemoja is considered to be the mother spirit of rivers and oceans and all creatures living therein.
The exhibition focuses on water as the source of life. The conceptual foundation was laid by a research trip that Rezaire and Agbo-Ola undertook with the scientists. Their research took them to Zanzibar, an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, and to Lake Tanganyika, where they studied the local water fauna including fish, corals, and micro-organisms.
The walk-through temple that engages all senses brings the habitat of this fauna to Berlin, inviting visitors to connect to an environment that the Yoruba consider to be inhabited by both physical and spiritual beings. The knitted textile surface of the pavilion designed by Olaniyi Studio, whose individual fabric elements have been dyed indigo blue in Nigeria using centuries-old techniques, shows abstract representations of the sea organisms discovered and studied by the artist-scientist team during their dives.
In the temple’s interior, visitors will find offerings to the sea goddess such as flowers and honey. An immersive sound installation combines ritual chants with spoken artistic and scientific reflections on the water ecosystem.
Omi: Yemoja Temple is, therefore, much more than an architectural construction: As an experiential space, it combines scientific research with spiritual rituals, and expands biological and ecological research perspectives to encompass a holistic approach integrating indigenous technologies and knowledge systems.
The following videos can be used as additional material to delve deeper into the exhibition.
Tabita Rezaire [Amakaba] x Yussef Agbo-Ola [Olaniyi Studio] Omi Libations
Visit the media libraryUnter den Linden 32-34
10117 Berlin
Telefon: +49.30.20 62 29 62
Email: info@scheringstiftung.de
Thursday to Monday: 1 pm - 7 pm
Saturday to Sunday: 11 am - 7 pm
free entrance