Various venues, Edinburgh
Charlotte Runcie and Irvine Welsh are among the writers exploring Scotland’s maritime history in these evocative installations
A litany of names is projected on the outside walls of Edinburgh’s City Chambers: “Mariatu, Jalevina, Adama, Tennah, Fatima …” Unlike the names of the white merchants commemorated by the city’s statues and streets, these black ancestors of musician Kayus Bankole have been lost to time. Now, as part of Message from the Skies, five literary installations running until Burns Night, the Young Fathers vocalist is reciting their forgotten names like an incantation. This, at the former Royal Exchange built from the wealth of colonial exploitation two decades before Scotland banned slave ownership.
Bankole’s purpose, he says, as his face distorts in the watery visuals of film-maker Rianne White, is not to accuse his fellow citizens of racism or blame them for the sins of their forebears, but to acknowledge the way we are all shaped by the past. “Speaking honestly about our history will give us a better sense of belonging to each other,” he says.
At various venues, Edinburgh, until 25 January.
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