Among the activities linked to the exhibition Colonial Memory in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections, the museum, in collaboration with La Parcería, is organising a Salsadrome open to the general public and consisting of salsa music for dancing played by a DJ and free classes. This sound activation, accompanied by images of works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collections, will be aiming to transfer the debate on colonization opened up by the museum to the dance floor.

What, however, is the relationship between the museum’s exhibition and the dance floor, what we generically call salsa? As La Parcería’s members point out, the decolonial exercise can and should be envisaged beyond its theoretical aspect. Salsa is in fact the result of forms of struggle to preserve knowledge, beliefs and ways of doing and interrelating of lives from Africa, who made their memory a creative and defensive strategy in foreign lands and under dominating powers.

With this sound and visual activation the museum is inviting visitors to discover the intercontinental polyrhythmic panorama that finally found its transformative crucible in the Caribbean and its media peak in that most mestizo of cities, New York.

DJs:
Johan Cañandonga
Salsa Ensemble

Dance class:
Rico Saoco

Organiser:
La Parcería, Madrid