About Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes

Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes is a large-scale exhibition that invites visitors on a powerful journey through themes of collectivity, diaspora, and cultural identity. Curated by Haja Fanta and Filly Gueye of RAW, the exhibition brings together seven artists with roots in West Africa – Yacine Tilala Fall, Selly Raby Kane, Maguette Dieng, Ican Ramageli, Hamedine Kane, Eva Diallo, and Babacar Traoré “Doli” – to collaboratively create a multi-sensory installation.

Blending sculpture, sound, textiles, video, and performance, the project explores what it means to build a shared artistic universe: one in which diverse backgrounds and perspectives coexist, intersect, and are given space to unfold.

Spiritual Sonic Systems

As the first program in the series, DAR invited DJs Maguette Dieng and Lynnée Denise to host an experimental listening session engaging with themes of spirituality, sound, and the diaspora.

In Spiritual Sonic Systems: A Dialogue Sharing Frequencies, Sounding Hope, and Calling Attention to the Unification of Rhythmic Elevation, Maguette and Lynnée navigate a selection of music that bridges ancestral knowledge and future-facing cultural practices. Moving from prayer rooms to the dance floor, they reveal sophisticated systems of knowing expressed through improvisation, ritual, and sonic languages beyond words.

Drawing on the role of circles, circulation, and cyclical ways of knowing, the session highlights the continuous movement shaped by DJs and selectors across the African diaspora. Through the reactivation and transformation of ancient rhythms, participants are invited to attune to sonic legacies that persist and re-emerge, offering new ways of understanding hidden codes and collective survival.

Echoes from Dakar

The second event animated Marres during Maastricht Museumnacht with an electrifying DJ line-up. In collaboration with Operator Radio, DAR invited DJs Jewel, MIMI, and Princess Vineyard to translate the exhibition into sound.

Tracing themes of permeability, ancestral memory, and unseen systems of connection, the night echoed the spirit of Dakar from the exhibition space onto the dance floor. African beats met Caribbean sounds in a dynamic exchange of experimentation and community, set in motion through a live broadcast by Operator Radio. 

Sonic World Building

Directly from Dakar to Maastricht, the finissage event saw Ibaaku perform in dialogue with multidisciplinary artist Cherella, creating an immersive encounter between sound and movement. 

Drawing from over a decade of research and collective practice, Ibaaku’s work weaves African Futurism, heritage, and experimental sounds into new forms of storytelling spanning music, performance, and fashion. Rooted in his practice as a sonic worlds builder and pioneer of NeoDakar movement, this performance invited participants to embark on a journey through imagined and lived realities inspired by the evolving ecosystem of cultural, ancestral, and speculative narratives.