Pungwe Listening Rotations - Open Listening Session to the voice of Princess Magogo, followed by a Live Mixtape with Pungwe Listening and Lynnée Denise

Open Listening Session to the voice of Princess Magogo, followed by a Live Mixtape with Pungwe Listening and Lynnée Denise

The TOOLSHED is open to the public, inviting visitors to engage directly with the research and processes of its residents. Through the Pungwe Listening Rotations, audiences are invited not only to listen but also to participate in new forms of collective making, institutional questioning, and artistic experimentation.

As part of TOOLSHED, Kunstinstituut Melly’s residency and research initiative running from 17 May to 21 September 2025, we are pleased to present Listening at Pungwe, a collective founded by artist-historian Memory Biwa and music and sound researcher Robert Machiri.

TOOLSHED is conceived as an experimental space for reflection, discussion, and action on how we build and transform cultural institutions today. Within this framework, Listening at Pungwe introduces its practice of listening as a mode of inquiry, resistance, and reimagination.

The Pungwe Listening Rotations consist of open sessions that draw from the call-and-response tactics of the pungwe: a term used in Zimbabwe to describe all-night social gatherings. Founded in 2017, Listening at Pungwe began as a jam session of ideas centred on sonic memories and the archives of southern African histories. These Rotterdam sessions extend that lineage, offering listening as a way of accessing alternative archives: living, communal, and spiritual, beyond material taxonomy.

Through experimental playback and shared acts of listening, each gathering brings together guest selectors, collectors, artist-musicians, and audiences to create new modes of exchange and collective reflection.

Program

From 15:00

The session will be punctuated with Princess Magogo's essential classics. Lynnée will enter into a sonic dialogue with Chi (Robert Machiri), performing a live mixtape that meanders through “earworms,” the connective threads of musical worlds and memories that have inspired our decade-long collaboration in sonic pedagogy.

At 18:00

A live recording of the podcast Sekai Asks will take place. Host Sekai Makoni will be in conversation with Robert Machiri, reflecting on his practice and the broader experience of working as a Zimbabwean artist through music. The recording will also be streamed on Operator and made available across podcast platforms.