From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Dakar adaptations of Beach Surgery
For all West African adaptations, see West African adaptations of Beach Surgery. For the city, see Dakar. This article catalogs works created in or by artists based in Dakar, Senegal.
Dakar adaptations of Beach Surgery form a distinctive West African strand emphasizing pirate radio, textile-based narrative, and communal voice-centred practice. The city's role as a historical node of griot tradition, anti-colonial broadcasting, and textile innovation has shaped how artists engage with the cycle and the glitch.
Documented works
- Dakar Frequency Archive (recovered 2024; original date disputed). A pirate radio cycle believed lost, rediscovered in a community archive in Medina district. Nightly 15-minute broadcasts staging Leif and Katita's dialogue in Wolof, interspersed with live kora music. Much of the original tape stock is corrupted; several transmissions contain secondary signal-bleed. One fragment is filed under the geological catalogue name Riverbed_Geological_Survey_Early_Season_1970.txt. Status and provenance under examination [citation needed].
- Kora na Sira—The Cycle Told Through Strings (Senegal, 2018–ongoing). A griotic oral-instrumental cycle featuring master kora players from the Tounkara and Diabaté lineages, reworking Leif and Katita as a transmitted epic. Performed in markets, community gatherings, and at Dakar Biennale installations.
- Salt Frequency Broadcast—A Radio-Olfactory Installation (Dakar, 2022–present). A participatory work combining pirate radio transmission, scent, and textile. Listeners tune into unlicensed frequencies to receive instructions for a multi-sensory pilgrimage through Dakar's coastal neighbourhoods.
- Gorad Ndoolus—A Griot's Olfactory Return Archive (2021–ongoing). A participatory mapping project weaving griotic recitation with scent and textile, creating a living archive in Dakar's medinas. Title translates as "The Town That Grows Inside" [1].
- Merkato Meridian—Olfactory Icon Panels (collaborative with Addis Ababa; 2019–ongoing). Though based in Ethiopia, includes Dakar artists and co-produced workshops.
The Dakar works exemplify the franchise's commitment to global distribution, rooting adaptation not in generic export but in specific regional practices of memory-keeping, oral transmission, and refusal.
See also
- West African adaptations of Beach Surgery
- Griot oral epics and Beach Surgery
- Pirate radio and Beach Surgery
- Dakar Biennale
- Senegalese cultural traditions and Beach Surgery
References
- ↑ Wolof/Fula etymology disputed