CW#5 l SEASON 3 l Refuge Worldwide presents «Parallels»

Theme: Resistance

26 April 2023, Wednesday | Season 3, Episode 5

Oona Bar and online

 

Livestream link: https://youtube.com/live/PsCpw4A02GU

Organized by the Apartment Project Berlin and funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe

 

Refuge Worldwide presents «Parallels»

 

19.00 – 22.00 Performances

 

The theme of «Resistance» takes «Chromatic Wednesdays» to Refuge Worldwide, the host of the next episode, in which artists explore parallel narratives and streams of protest from multiple perspectives. Refuge was founded in 2015 as a fundraising platform working in solidarity with grassroots and non-profit organizations, and in 2021 launched Refuge Worldwide, a gender-balanced radio station amplifying music and topics of underrepresented artists. As part of the event, Refuge Worldwide presents an evening of sonic, visual and spoken interpretations of the topic «Resistance» by members of the radio station. In a variety media, the artists will tell stories and ask questions around the diversity and overlaps of different forms of resistance.

 

Laura Vargas will make a large-scale live drawing by recreating natural landscapes that were and still are spaces of resistance (places of ecological resistance, landscapes of peasant and indigenous struggle, sacred places exploited during colonialism and today the oil industry, mining and monoculture). The process of painting from memory will be intuitive and in dialogue with the music played live. 

  

In their latest storytelling work, «A series of stories», which Charlie Potié will present «Chromatic Wednesdays», they critique the late stage capitalist world with its liberal technology and intrusive science. They use the narrative tool as a way to speak up, fiction as an act of resilience, and voice, sound and visuals as a transformation of perception – expect cinematic scenes and magical realism.

 

«Staring at Static Noise» is a functional attempt at a video by Sarah Zeryab. It springs from a visual essay that strives to navigate and then deconstruct the medium, space, and language. The video shows the body as an object situated in the interior, in the domestic sphere, where it has no function than to seek out the interruption. 

 

«Erosion (pt. 2)» is the second installment of a performance co-produced by choreographer Emilie Gregersen and Cruz Proxy. The work delves into the concept of erosion as both a natural phenomenon and a subversive act in itself. The piece shows the gradual process of reshaping and renegotiating the boundaries of rigidity, offering a fresh perspective on the subtle interplay between nature and human connection. Throughout the piece, the performer subtly and synthetically moves through the space, creating plateaus of trust and nostalgia through a tech-sensual glitch that blurs the lines between reality and fiction.

 

For his performance, Oscar Atanga will use a mixture of instruments and devices to create ambient soundscapes and sonic collages incorporating live playing, samples and possible audience participation. 

  

At the event, Tianna Strickland will read her poetry, which is about honestly confronting tough feelings. Besides, she will include excerpts from «How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America» by Kiese Laymon and quotes from Audre Lorde that are about community in her reading. By unleashing deep emotions, her poetry functions as a catalyst to get people to speak more vulnerably in public.

 

In his performance, Richard Akingbehin will play experimental music and other types of protest music, incorporating audio recordings of speeches, interviews, and voice notes of friends talking about what resistance means to them. 

 

 

«Chromatic Wednesdays» is a bi-weekly event series bringing together creative thinkers across diverse backgrounds. As part of this interdisciplinary program, the event will be presented at 19:00 (doors open at 19:00) at Oona Bar (Weserstraße 166, 12045 Berlin) and will be broadcast live on Refuge Worldwide radio (LINK) and video streamed on Youtube (https://youtube.com/live/PsCpw4A02GU).

 

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Born in Colombia and based in Berlin, Laura Vargas draws inspiration from the analytical characteristics of surrealism and the aesthetics of various forms of ancestral symbolism, mystery and mysticism. Her dreamscapes are the result of intuitive work that seeks and creates its own language of codes and unconscious desires. With her drawings, objects and installations Laura stages different emotions that move between love and hopelessness, nostalgia and melancholy, nature and spirituality.

 

Charlie Potié, based in Berlin, is a multidisciplinary artist with a degree in architecture (MA, Nantes) and a background in classical music and jazz. Their artistic practice spans music, film, text and painting. They create stories through sensory experiences, paying attention to textures and the social, spatial and sonic poetics of the in-between. Charlie is active in the Refuge Worldwide radio community and the queer orchestra Concentus Alius as first violinist. Their most recent focus is access in event spaces for people with disabilities.

 

Sarah Zeryab is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker. She lives, works and studies in Berlin. Currently she is studying Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. Using audiovisual and spatial means, her work deals with the narration and retelling of the affective and aesthetic materializations of loss, grief and resistance in the context of an analysis of European legacies of modernity, colonialism, and the production of history today.

 

Cruz Proxy (b. in San José, Costa Rica) is a Latinx artist based in Berlin and CPH. Cruz holds a BFA and MFA from the Funen Art Academy in Denmark (2019). They are the co-founder of the art duo L9. Their multidisciplinary practice draws on ideas of social constructivism and reinterpretation of diverse narratives. Their work spans a spectrum that closely links dystopia, satire, aesthetics, spiritual practices, and identity with lived experiences and emotional exploration. Conceptualization is at the core of Cruz’s work and can be translated into a wide range of media and methods, from video to installation, 3D animation, text, sound, performance, and sculpture.

 

Oscar Atanga aka O.N.A is a Cameroonian sound artist, curator and DJ. Born and raised in Manchester, Oscar lived and worked in London for several years after studying at Oxford University. In his Berlin studio, where he is currently based, Oscar mainly produces electronic music, which he combines withs live instrument in various solo and collaborative projects. Oscar’s sonic practice is driven by the exploration of textures and the decolonization of sounds and spaces. Oscar seeks to transcend genre and style boundaries while reclaiming diasporic musical expressions and reflecting their breadth and depth. Oscar is a Refuge Worldwide Resident and is also a core member of Black Artist Database (B.A.D).

 

Tianna Strickland is a multi-disciplinary artist currently focusing on poetry and analog photography. She attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City for her Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Film and Video. Tianna self-published her first art book in January 2021 titled «Hearts will be Broken», which includes poetry and photographs. Tianna draws inspiration for her work from the dualities of the world, personal memories, and the people around her. She makes vulnerability and difficult emotions visible in hopes of promoting understanding of how deeply connected we all are.

 

Richard Akingbehin is co-founder of Berlin-based radio station Refuge Worldwide and the founder of the techno, experimental and dub label Kynant Records. His DJ sets draw from a wide range of genres – house, techno, garage and ambient – with dub influences running like a red thread through his performances.