Saturday 2 March 2019, 7.30pm
Nkisi is the electronic music project of artist Melika Ngombe Kolongo, where she explores her obsession with worldly rhythm and its psycho-acoustic properties. ‘I like to think that as musicians or sonic practitioners we work with energy, actually we move energy around. I am interested in movement and moving—the trance and how repetition and the relation between rhythm and melody can hold that trance. I am also very interested in what sound and music actually do to our bodies and psyche. Music as bodily endeavour and personal experience can disrupt representational illusions, as it allows the indescribable and unthinkable to exist.’--Nkisi
This residency is one of three at OTO for UK-based artists/groups at a vital point in their creative development, thanks to the support of Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
Paul Maheke lives and works in London.
His current research imagines the body as an archive using its waters as pathways to information and knowledge. This investigation occupy a metaphorical space wherein which the body resonates and echoes with the broader socio-political and historical context that have birthed it.
With particular attention to dance, it proposes to rearticulate the representations of queer Blackness that emerge from Western imaginations by addressing History through non-human subjectivity. It is also a way to question social and geographical relationships to places as they relate to a more personal inquiry that mainly deals with unsettling idea of « main-ness ».
“I collaborated first with Paul on a soundtrack for an installation exhibited at South London Gallery and we have been working a few projects since then. We will be presenting a performance piece that is part of an on-going larger work and research project that explores our similar interests in the invisible non-human realms and its agency, body rhythm and architectural relationships between trance induced performance, sonic waves and memory…”
Primitive Art is an experimental music band based in Milan and a collaboration between Matteo Pit and Jim C. Nedd founded in 2011.
“I had the privilege to experience Primitive Art Live and I remember it being a very hypnotic show and was really into the dubby feel, complex rhythm and enjoyed seeing/ hearing Jim on the mic. Also ‘Crab suite’ released on Arcola is a must-have.” – Nkisi
Astrid Gnosis is a Colombian-Spanish born artist based in London. As a multi-disciplinary artist with a growing body of work in music, performance, video and sound arts, Gnosis describes her shows as Destructivist art rallies.
Her performances conduct cinematic visual installations and staged interactions that both involve and envelope the audience in what she says is a “form of ritual murder”.
“I met Astrid when we both played at Norberg Festival last summer. She initiates very intense sonic worlds with a strong political message. I love the fact that she is pushing gabber forward with performative elements. I am very excited to see what captivating show she will bring us this time.”
