Conversations Ancestrale (2019) is an exhibition of works by Rita Mukebo. It is the culmination of a three week residency, held by the Wits History of Art and Heritage Management Department, from 9 – 31 May 2019. Functioning in conversation with the exhibition Artist Unrecorded, which was held at Wits Art Museum (WAM) that same month, Conversations Ancestrale is comprised of a video performance and installation that explore themes of migration, isolation, and bureaucracy.

Whereas Artist Unrecorded (2019) attempted to provoke the absences in the museum’s archive and collection of cultural material objects from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Conversations Ancestrale employs shoes and water as motifs to evoke wear and tear, as well as the cycles of life and death, the notion of time passed, distance travelled, and things lost or gained along the way.

“Shoes mean a lot of things,” explains Mukebo. “In my country, when we say that someone has lost their shoes, it means they’re dead. They have passed. So for me, it was about recovering these collections, which have lost their ‘soles’”. Created while on residency in Johannesburg, Conversations Ancestrale highlights the challenges Mukebo faced in obtaining her visa, as well as the language barrier she encountered on arrival. In this way, Mukebo creates a conceptual link between musicological practices, immigration policies, and the migration of objects and people.

Conversations Ancestrale forms part of an ongoing project with Waza Art Centre. The project is funded by Standard Bank and the Goethe-Institut, and forms part of an ongoing conversation about collection histories and museological practices.