Living Room Session

This Living Room Session unfolds as an exhibition, artist talk, and musical performance at Union de la Jeunesse Internationale in Paris, on Thursday, 25 June, reflecting on the subject of Remembered Connection: What Holds.
Exhibiting works that engage heritage, identity, memory, imagination, and transmission, the session brings together Iriée Zamblé, Sali Sylla and Wendy Owusu. Conceived as a temporary metaphorical living room, we explore not only what is remembered, but also how memory moves, what it touches and transforms, and what it asks us to hold collectively, even briefly.
Date & Time
Thurday, 25 June 2026
12:30 — Exhibition opens
18:00 — Artist talk and musical performance
More about the artists and session
Curated by Shaquille Shaniqua Joy the exhibition includes an adaptation of Sali Sylla's An Ode to Djeliya, which engages the West African oral storytelling tradition through contemporary design and digital research. Combining custom-built objects and re-designed traditional instruments, the work reflects on the transmission of Maninka cultural memory and will be activated through a live musical performance by Sali’s djeli Fousseyni Sissoko.
In dialogue with this, Iriée Zamblé's work explores the intersection of memory and imagination, drawing on personal archives and found imagery, examining how individual and collective narratives take shape and are passed on over time through painting, drawing and collage. Her recent body of work, Generational Muscle Memory, builds on this research by examining the invisible ways knowledge is carried through generations.
Extending these reflections, the exhibition includes artworks by Wendy Owusu whose practice spans across multiple mediums, centering on identity while diving deeper into her cultural heritage through anthropological research and examining the preservation of traditions and their modern adaptations. Additionally, she investigates themes of group and urban transition, utilizing textiles and clothing as narrative tools.