Song of the Union: Emeka Ogboh

On 29 January 2020, as the United Kingdom departed the European Union (EU) and as a final gesture of farewell, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) took to their feet in Brussels, held hands and sang Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne – a song which has come to represent solidarity, friendship and open doors. The following week, Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh stood in the Robert Burns Monument in Edinburgh and conceived of Song of the Union, a sound installation featuring singers from all 27 EU member states living in Scotland today, as well as one from the recently departed UK. The resulting polyphonic choir gives voice to those who were unable to vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and has been created at a time when the post-Brexit reality is still far from resolved.
Song of the Union includes scores of Auld Lang Syne translated into the 27 languages of the EU. Musicologist M. J. Grant provides the historical context of the song Auld Lang Syne, its connection to Robert Burns, and how the song came to be sung by communities across the world from the 19th century onwards. Berlin based curator and author Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung’s reflects on the capacity that language has for possession and negotiating language and translation in Ogboh’s work and Kirsty Hughes, Director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations, explores how Brexit happened and what may be next for Scotland and the UK.

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is an independent curator, author and biotechnologist. He is founder and artistic director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin and the artistic director of sonsbeek20–24, a quadrennial contemporary art exhibition in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Ndikung was the curator-at-large for Adam Szymczyk’s documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany in 2017; a guest curator of the Dak’Art biennale in Dakar, Senegal, in 2018; and the artistic director of the 12th Bamako Encounters photography biennial in Mali in 2019. Together with the Miracle Workers Collective, he curated the Finland Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019. He is currently a Professor in the Spatial Strategies MA programme at the Weissensee Academy of Art in Berlin and is also a recipient of the first OCAD University International Curators Residency fellowship in Toronto in 2020.

Emeka Ogboh (b. 1977, Enugu, Nigeria) currently lives and works between Lagos and Berlin. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions most recently at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2021); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (2019); The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2018); Imane Fares Gallery, Paris (2018). Ogboh’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, France; Sharjah Biennale; MMK Frankfurt; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Tate Modern, London; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; Federal Republic of Germany and Le FRAC Centre- Val de Loire, France. Ogboh is a founding member and director of Video Art Network Lagos.

Tessa Giblin is the Director of Talbot Rice Gallery at the University of Edinburgh, where she holds a Personal Chair in Contemporary Curating with Edinburgh College of Art. She has recently curated solo exhibitions of Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Lucy Skaer, David Claerbout and Jesse Jones. She was commissioner and curator of Jesse Jones’ Tremble Tremble for Ireland at the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), which has since continued to tour internationally. She is part of the acquisitions committee of the Frac Bretagne 2020–2022, and from 2006–2016 was Curator of Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland.

M. J. Grant is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Music at the University of Edinburgh. Her research in the sociology and historical anthropology of music includes work on the social functions of songs and singing, music in Scotland and the musicology ofwar and violence. She has also published extensively on the theory and aesthetics of avant-garde and experimental music since 1950. She is a member of the Editorial and Advisory board of the Musica Scotica Trust. Her second book Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture, is forthcoming from Open Book Publishers.

Kirsty Hughes is a researcher, writer and commentator on European politics and policy. She is Director and founder of the Scottish Centre on European Relations and has worked at a number of leading European think tanks, including as Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, Brussels; Senior Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies; and Director, European Programme, Chatham House. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Tessa Giblin is the Director of Talbot Rice Gallery at the University of Edinburgh, where she holds a Personal Chair in Contemporary Curating with Edinburgh College of Art. She has recently curated solo exhibitions of Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Lucy Skaer, David Claerbout and Jesse Jones. She was commissioner and curator of Jesse Jones’ Tremble Tremble for Ireland at the 57th Biennale di Venezia (2017), which has since continued to tour internationally. She is part of the acquisitions committee of the Frac Bretagne 2020–2022, and from 2006–2016 was Curator of Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland.

Melissa MacRobert is Exhibitions Manager at Talbot Rice Gallery. With a focus on project management, artist commissions, research and touring - she has produced exhibitions with Angelica Mesiti, Emeka Ogboh, Samson Young, Myriam Lefkowitz and Lucy Skaer in addition to various major international group exhibitions including The Normal, Pine’s Eye, Borderlines and At the Gates. She was co-editor of Emeka Ogboh Song of the Union (Talbot Rice Gallery, 2021) and has co-ordinated a number of artist publications including Ken Price A Survey of Sculptures and Drawings (H&W Publishers/DelMonico Prestel, 2017); Guillermo Kuitca (H&W Publishers/Snoeck, 2016); Phyllida Barlow Fifty Years of Drawings (JRP Ringier, 2014); Takesada Matsutani A Matrix (JRP Ringier, 2013).