University College of London Exhibit: Reanimating cultural heritage in Sierra Leone

Dancers from Sierra Leone's Bondo society (c) Paul Basu

If you happen to find yourself in London you should check out a new multimedia exhibit on Sierra Leone’s culture. The exhibit ‘Reanimating cultural heritage in Sierra Leone’ is the culmination of three years of research by Dr Paul Basu at the University College of London.

Videos, photos, and other documents have been compiled in Sierra Leone to help salvage and preserve the nation’s often neglected cultural heritage. The content will be shared with the Sierra Leone national museum and museums in the UK.

Researchers hope that their work will provide deeper cultural understanding to otherwise inanimate masks and relics.

“Many of those videos literally reanimate some of those museum collections. Reconnecting an object with the video then brings that object back to life to some degree” said Dr. Paul Basu

“There’s a bigger aim as well – what role can cultural heritage have in reanimating society more broadly?” he added.

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