Mother Tongue

In an arrangement that resembles an open book, acclaimed Australian artist Angelica Mesiti structures Mother Tongue, 2017 like a musical score, drawing on synchronicity, harmony, dissonance and discordant associations to generate an image of juxtaposed social realities.

Originally commissioned by the European Capital of Culture Aarhus in 2017, this video installation takes the songs in the Højskolesangbogen (The National Folk High School Songbook) as its conceptual starting point. The Højskolesangbogen is the foundational anchor of the Danish tradition of fællessang (communal singing), which originated in the socialist movements of the late 1800s as a form of protest and is today a symbol of national identity and togetherness. To adhere to fællessang is to perform the vernacular of a collective ‘mother tongue’.

In Mesiti’s Mother Tongue, urban, civic, learning and residential spaces are the settings for multiple performances – from popular radio hits to traditional folk songs, Somali blues, marching drills and wedding dances. The work celebrates and examines the ways communities learn to live together, and shows how music is used as a social cohesion and carried from place to place by people integrating into communities.

Mesiti’s meditations on migrations offer a range of attitudes – from the joyous to the melancholic. The blue hues, moonlit skies and slow pace of Mother Tongue suggest a world not entirely settled, a place finely balancing the act of community.

Artwork credit:

Angelica Mesiti, Mother Tongue, 2017
dual-channel, high definition (HD) video installation, 17:54, colour, surround sound, two screen
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki gift of the Friends of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2020