For the first time since its debut at Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), artist Hajra Waheed will be exhibiting her multi-channel sound installation Hum II in Bogotá, Colombia. The work will be presented as a unique and ambitious 32-channel outdoor sound experience, built into the colonial ruins and gardens that wrap around artist Doris Salcedo’s anti-monument — Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria. 

Hajra Waheed’s Hum, which translates to “We” in Urdu, is a series of unique musical compositions and multi-channel sound installations that explore the collective power of the human voice to transcend borders, unite across differences, and resist systems of oppression. Hum II reflects specifically on the leadership of women in the struggles of working people, the marginalized, and the dispossessed, whose participation is rarely made visible, amplified or centered. This second volume features seven songs that have been central to popular uprisings, mass social movements and anti-colonial struggles in the Americas, Africa and Asia, where women have been at the forefront. Many of these songs and musical forms have either been suppressed or banned, but all are still widely sung today, preserved and passed down by women to new generations.

Hum II will be exhibited within the ruins and gardens of Fragmentos, marking the first time this revitalized space opens to the public and hosts an artwork. In Salcedo’s anti-monument, silence is not an absence but a force—bearing witness to the void left by war. As Hum II resonates through the exterior and spills into Fragmentos’ hushed interior, both engage in a profound dialogue on memory, resistance, and solidarity—where silence becomes a haunting echo of loss and sound an act of resilience. Together, the works forge connections between Colombia’s history and global struggles for liberation and justice. More than a site of reflection, here, Hum II becomes a space for active listening and gathering, where the voices of those who continue to shape these movements are recognized— and where collective memory emerges, as both an act of mourning and a gesture of hope.

Hum II, by Hajra Waheed, is presented by The Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Knowledges of Colombia; the National Museum of Colombia, and Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria.