Turn the Sound Up! What Jakarta Motorbikes Mean For Mobility in Kaolack (Senegal)

To avoid a criminalizing, spectacular or polarized reading of the Jakarta phenomenon, the artistic device implemented has been oriented in two directions. On the one hand, voice was given to the motorcycles, instead of their drivers, in order to question the links between actors, objects and places, as well as the systems of categorization of the material world. On the other hand, following up on an initial collaboration with Senegalese musicians from Studio Ëpoukay, we focused on sound editing, to tell the full-of-twists story of Kaolack’s small motorcycles, from colonial times to today’s globalized trade.