Aurélie Nyirabikali – “Sogokuru” / Pedro Oliveira – “A Series of Gaps Rather Than a Presence”

  • Music

With Sogokuru, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman researches (modern) forms of animism, and how animistic worldviews have managed to survive in spite of severe oppression through heavy colonization. Herself born in Rwanda but raised in Belgium, Lierman takes direct inspiration from a series of life-changing encounters with her 108-year-old grandfather, one of the last living Rwandan traditional hunters and doctors that has seen the pre-colonial country of his childhood pass through two colonization events (German and Belgian), the 1950s revolution for independence, the genocide and post-war massacres of the 90s, and the country's present-day turmoil. Lierman's family visits have resulted in an ongoing investigation into the soundscape of contemporary urban and rural East Africa, and of her native region of Virunga in particular. The piece takes its name from the Rwandan word for “grandfather”, an honorable, loving term used in the country’s pre-colonial gerontocracy. The work was one of two winning projects selected for the CTM 2019 Radio Lab, which sought unusual explorations of the artistic possibilities of radio and live performance or installation mediums,  

Through “A Series of Gaps Rather than a Presence”, artist and sound researcher Pedro Oliveira will offer an artistic, decolonising framework for investigating what he calls the “colonial politics of sonic biometrics.” Oliveira examines acts of collecting, ranking, taxonomizing, and normalizing vocal traits and their subsequent weaponization in the border-industrial complex. Through vocal performances using content from voice recognition and accent recognition databases, Oliveira builds a new form of anti-archive sonic insolence.

Dates

Past
Wed 30.1.2019, 19:30 / HAU2

Credits

Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman is supported by the CTM 2019 Radio Lab, an initiative by Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Radio Art/Klangkunst and CTM Festival, in collaboration with ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival, Ö1 Kunstradio, and The Wire magazine. Pedro Oliveira is supported by Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio Art / Klangkunst.

Location

HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin

There are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can also be booked via the ticketing system. If you need help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email to tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.

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