Photograph by Madakya, HKW, Berlin, 2026

Wax Echoes: Unwritten Notes emerged from a research project developed with Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and the other artists in the exhibition. The project explored histories of colonial military service and resistance. The Tirailleurs were African soldiers recruited into France’s colonial forces; Britain, Belgium, Germany and Portugal also relied on African soldiers in their colonial armies. Atanga’s research looked further back, toward precolonial histories, to place military service and resistance within longer histories of the region.

At the Lautarchiv at Humboldt Forum, Atanga listened to century-old recordings of Tirailleur prisoners of war held in Germany. He also researched and made field recordings across Senegal and Benin. The installation brings these archival voices into relation with field recordings, electronic composition, multilingual spoken text and multichannel sound. Sounds and voices overlap, recede and return, creating a layered listening environment shaped by memory, absence and historical continuity.

The suspended loudspeakers were wrapped in natural cotton grown and handwoven in Benin. The textile was cut and sewn into forms based on traditional Beninese garments from the prewar period, identified through research in visual archives with access and support from Fondation Zinsou. The garment forms are not immediately apparent in the installation, but shape how the speakers hold and release sound. The cotton gives the archival voices a material presence, resisting their reduction to flat historical documents. It also carries histories of labour and economic exchange between Africa and Europe, connecting the voices in the archive to the movement of materials and wealth.

The images in this section show selected stages of the research and production, from archival and field research to the making of the installation.

Materials and technical elements: Multichannel audio, field recordings, electronic composition, multilingual spoken text, suspended loudspeakers wrapped in natural cotton grown and handwoven in Benin. Variable dimensions.

Wax Echoes: Unwritten Notes (2025–26), multichannel sound installation, textile, text. With contributions by Elise Agbodegbe (weaving), Jacopo Biffi (audio engineering), Anna Diagne (text design), Gaëlle Dogo and Pascal Tohouedo (tailoring), Papi Ndoye and Akele Wéwé Tatchéyon (translation). Courtesy of the artist, archival material courtesy of the Fondation Zinsou Benin (with thanks to Halima Moumouni and Laura Fagbohoun), and Lautarchiv der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin