Restan Lepase (The Remains of The Past): An evening to celebrate Seychellois veteran artist Léon Radegonde

Restan Lepase – Seychellois Creole for “the remains of the past” – is DēpART’s presentation of Léon Radegonde’s (b.1950, La Digue The Seychelles) distinctive artistic practice at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House (15–18 October 2026). Staged in the year Seychelles celebrates fifty years of independence, it also marks the first ever Seychellois contribution to The 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair in its 13 years. This preview gathers guests just ahead of the fair for an evening of launching, listening and looking back in order to look forward: what remainsbecomes the material from which futures are made. The evening opens with the launch of the Restan Lepase reader, followed by a conversation between curator Chantel Akworkor Thompson and Dr Peter Nicholls with the artist, Léon Radegonde. Guests will then hear a preview of SENSORIUM ARCHIPELAGO: BREATHING AIR, a collaborative sound work by historian, artist and musician Dr Peter Nicholls and conceptual sound artist Peter Adjaye. Reflecting on their backgrounds in Seychelles, Ghana and their UK diasporas, the piece brings together breath, music, field recording, archived voices and underwater sound to explore heritage as something carried through body, material, environment and memory. Its voices surface from the sonic archive of the late Seychellois ethnomusicologist Norbert Salomon, and the work is also a tribute to him.