Whyte&Zettergren is an artistic duo comprising Jamaican dancer Olando Whyte and Swedish visual artist Rut Karin Zettergren. Their collaboration, initiated in 2018 with the project, Herring, Iron, Gunpowder, Humans & Sugar (HIGHS). With the project they visit locations historically linked to the triangular trade, the economic system underpinning the transatlantic slave trade. At these historical sites, Whyte&Zettergren perform live acts with choreography, storytelling, and ceremonial actions. In the acts they use objects crafted from materials extracted, manufactured, or exported from these locations. In March 2022, the duo launched a space-traveling program for healing Historical Spiritual Vibrations outside a saltfish factory in Reykjavik. A resistance act inspired by Afrofuturism, dub, and speculative fiction, envisioning space as a realm of freedom. This initiative originated from their participation in the collaborative artistic research project ÓNÆM (2020-2022), organized by Bryndís Björnsdóttir. During the project, they explored colonial interlinks between the North and the Caribbean, first focusing on food, and then moving in to research the relationship between plans for new space exploration and colonization, along with their connections to legacies stemming from the Enlightenment. The duo's artistic works constitute an ongoing investigation into the historical memory held by a place, material, and body. Their process visualizes the entanglement between geographically distant locations, objects, cultures, and times. Through their creative processes, they seek potential methods for healing historical trauma and strive to craft rites that envision possible futures. Whyte&Zettergren is currently working on their space program along with a video artwork on historical trauma and the collaborative research project Contingency Sample with Bryndís Björnsdóttir that explore extractivism in the era of the new space age. Their works have previously been performed and presented at various significant venues, including the Great House of the sugar plantation Stokes Hall, Fd Molyne’s Sugar Estate, Fort Charles in Port Royal Harbor (JA), Klippan harbor in collaboration with Tredje Våningen, Gammelbo Ironworks, Malongen - The Nordic Art Association (NKF), TEGEN2, Galleri Thomassen, Galleri Gerlesborg (SE), and the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik (IS)

Historical spiritual vibration — a space traveling program for healing

Performance schedule

12.00—15.00

Act one – Transformation of a model of a 1800 century trading ship into a spaceship for healing travels in the future.

16.00—17.00

Act two- Sugar and saltfish ceremony next to terrariums with ackee.

22.00—22.30

Act three- Spaceship launch ceremony of HIGHS at the harbor.

Launch cermony

During the 23rd of April 2022 Whyte&Zettergren had a ceremony in three acts at The Living Art Museum in Reykjavikto launch their space travel program.

The ceremonies spring from memories beyond our time zone. A healing practice for the space race where they bring objects that witness historical trauma into the future and carry it into a next dimension. An old trading ship becomes a spaceship, saltfish blends with cane sugar into a monument for repairing historical hurt. A model of a spiritual vibrating space vessel is sent into the sky where it will sail with the spirits to shape a new destiny.

Who feels it knows it, patterns repeating themselves through the centenaries. What was once broken still hurts the newborn. Generational trauma, historical trauma, post traumatic slave syndrome brakes soft skin. We carry the memories of the fallen in our hearts, in the other dimensions they are still alive. They travel in the vessels that harbor the souls of the ancestors. Acknowledge your privileges and allow the healing, close your eyes and see the star ship shining. Rest in the belly of the beast, slumber in the darkness among the glistering fires. The new planet will set us free.

ACT 3

ACT 1

ACT 2

Tip

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Historical spiritual vibration — a space traveling program for healing