Talbot Rice Gallery presents 'Emeka Ogboh: Song of the Union in Edinburgh'
Emeka Ogboh, Song of the Union, 2021. 7-channel sound installation, duration infinite. Burns Monument, Edinburgh. Courtesy Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. Photo: Sally Jubb.
EDINBURGH
.-Talbot Rice Gallery and Edinburgh Art Festival announced that a new sound installation by artist Emeka Ogboh (b. 1977, Nigeria) was unveiled at Edinburghs Burns Monument. The new public artwork, entitled Song of the Union, co-commissioned by Talbot Rice Gallery and Edinburgh Art Festival, is a response to the ongoing theatre surrounding the UKs departure from the European Union.
On January 29, 2020, as the United Kingdom departed the European Union and as a final gesture of farewell, Members of the European Parliament took to their feet in Brussels, held hands and sang Robert Burns Auld Lang Synea 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.