This soundscape is part of the performingborders 2021 commission Spell for a border town (retrocedare) by Daria Damian Martin.

Roma Futurism by Flo Thamer / Spell for a border town (retrocedare)

Performed live by Sayang on 28/04/22 using
modular synthesis, as part of We Need Queer Liberation Now project

Sound Bath by Sayang

performingbordersRadio: THREE LISTENING RITUALS IN SONIC MIGRATIONS | TRES RITUALES DE ESCUCHA EN MIGRACIONES SÓNICAS - by Ximena Alarcón-Díaz 

Join us for performingborder’s first radio show of 2023! For the next few months we’ll be exploring the entanglement between Live Art and notions and lived experiences of intersectional and transnational borders, bi-monthly on Montez Press Radio. We are taking to the radio to share our collaborative, sound-based performance work created with and by artists in our network. We hope you enjoy it. 


We open this series with three listening rituals by Ximena Alarcón-Díaz, which were originally commissioned for performingborders’ annual e-Journal #2: Rallying the Commons, published 14th December 2022. The pieces are offered as a trilogy of rituals to connect your body to the dream world, to childhood memories of curiosity about nature, and to other beings that are more than human. Through the rituals we hope to explore sonic migration, deep listening, and strengthen our individual and collective sense of agency.


In this re-release of the rituals, we tell you more about this new radio series and hear more from Ximena about the rituals and her practice after the creation of the work. 


The rituals mix Spanish and English but welcome listeners in all languages. There are transcriptions freely available in the e-journal, through which you can also revisit the rituals. 


Access the transcriptions on our e-journal here: https://performingborders.live/ejournal/three-listening-rituals-in-sonic-migrations/

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 1 with Ximena Alarcón-Díaz | Jan 2023

Tune in to performingbordesRadio, an exploration into the entanglement between Live Art, sound, and notions and lived experiences of intersectional and transnational borders, bi-monthly on Montez Press Radio. In this new show, performingborders take to the radio to share collaborative, sound-based performance work created with and by artists in their network.

In our second episode as Radio residents, we meet with artist Diana Damian Martin to talk through her commission Spells for a border town (retrocedare) which was originally commissioned for the performingborders platform in April 2021. In Romanian, Retrocedare refers to the process of returning something, for example, a territory, back to the person or entity that had previously been ceded (usually) during a violent or enforced take-over. In this episode, we’ll be re-sharing some of the audio work from this commission, re-visiting the political situation of the territories that mark the commission and talking, as well as touching on the entanglement between the process of re-ceding and decolonial practices on the peripheries of Europe.

The episode and commission features work and thinking by artists: Diana Damian Martin, Mihaela Drăgan, Rusanda Curcă, Iulia Mărăcine, and Flo Thamer. 

Diana Damian Martin is an artist and researcher, working at the intersection between writing, politics and performance. Her work concerns alternative critical epistemologies and feminist modes of exchange, interventionist and political performance and the ecological and representational poetics of migration, with a distinct focus on Eastern Europe. Recent collaborations include performingborders, The Albany, Dansehallerne, The Wellcome Collection and Tate Modern. She co-hosts The Department of Feminist Conversations and Something Other, and co-runs the Serbo-Romanian critical cooperative Critical Interruptions, artistic research committee Generative Constraints and is a core member of Migrants in Culture. Her recent publications include (states of) wake: Dedicating Performance and Critical Interruptions Vol 1: Steakhouse LIVE. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Performance Arts at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and once appeared in an issue of Private Eye, where her work was described as obscure, impenetrable and unclear. Twitter: @DianaADamian

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 2 with Diana Damian Martin | May 2023

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 3 with Untethered Magic | July 2023

This month performingborders shares an audio collage of their time working with Untethered Magic, from visiting their space on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya in February 2023 during a two-week residency, to ongoing digital conversations on transnational collaboration. Untethered Magic, run by artists Syowia Kyambi, Kibe Wangunyu, and Ciaran Nash, is both a home and an independently run residency space that encourages growth, independence, and processes of unlearning. It is a space being set up to live with the land, thinking through sustainability in environmental and social terms.

During their time collaborating, performingborders and Untethered Magic have discussed ideas of place, sustainability, and live art, thinking through the creation of alternative spaces for experimental work. In this show, they share conversations between the two collectives, alongside readings and short performative interventions by artists who joined them during the residency in Kenya including Nekoye Ommeh, Ngwatilo Mawiyoo, Esther Kamba, and Joseph Kanyenje.

Edited by: Olive Mondegreen 

Artists (including pronouns):

Anahi Saravia Herrera she/her
Alessandra Cianetti  she/her
Xavier de Sousa he/him + they/them
Syowia Kyambi she/her
Kibe Wangunyu he/him
Ngwatilo Mawiyoo she/her
Nekoye Ommeh she/her
Esther Kamba she/her
Joseph Kanyenje he/him 
Ciaran Nash he/him 


Brief description of show: 
performingbordersRadio explores the entanglement between Live Art and notions and lived experiences of intersectional and transnational borders, bi-monthly on Montez Press Radio. This radio space hosts and shares collaborative, sound-based performance work created with and by artists in the performingborders network.

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 3 with Untethered Magic | July 2023

📻 This month we’re talking to Pouya Ehsaei about the Lips To The Moon project, listening to some of their favourite recordings from the performances, talking about multidisciplinary collaboration, and thinking more about what it means to work transnationally through sound.

✨🌙 From the Lips to the Moon is an unusual music and poetry performance. An immersive space made through the synergies of words, melodies, languages and beats. Created by electronic musician and composer Pouya Ehsaei and performance maker and word trickster Tara Fatehi, From the Lips to the Moon is a regular music and poetry night in London where they invite other poets and musicians to join them in creating live improvised performances. It is an event full of riveting live music, mind-bending beats, fierce poetry, absurd texts and goosebumps. The performances are often streamed to the Palestine-based Radio-Alhara.

This episode was recorded live Montez Press Radio studios in London, on Thursday 28 September | 4 PM

performingbordersRadio: Episode 4 with Pouya Ehsaei, From the Lips to the Moon | September 2023

Given the on-going genocide in Gaza, performingborders created this episode as a space to share resources in the form of texts, poems, music, and the reading of manifestos and call-outs generated around the world from groups in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. It is a radio space to echo the voices of those demanding justice and voicing the way in which all of our struggles are entangled - none of us are free until we all are. Tune in to find a space for collective grief, solidarity, seeds of resistance, and calls to action.

SONG: Hassan Shaikh - Ana Dammi Falasteeni

EXCERPT FROM: DAYRA AND COMMUNAL DEBT by Lara Khaldi on behalf of and with The Question of Funding

SONG: Lowkey- Long Live Palestine

POEM: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

SONG: يا فلسطينية | فرقة يلالان وفرقة اسكندريلا | Ya Falastinia | Yalalan Band & Eskenderella Band

SONG: Ana Tijoux - Somos Sur

CALL OUT: COMO FEMINISTAS NO PODEMOS PERMANECER EN SILENCIO // COMO FEMINISTAS DECIMOS NO AL GENOCIDIO EN PALESTINA

SONG: KOFIA -  Leve Palestina, Krossa Sionismen

CALL OUT: An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel

SONG: Emel Mathlouthi - Naci en Palestina آمال مثلوثي

OPEN LETTER: AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE ART COMMUNITY TO CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

SONG: Sabreen - Smoke Of The Volcanoes

SONG: Sabreen - On Wishes

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 5: On Palestine | October 2023

Original Broadcast: 
Montez Press Radio
24th November 2023
4pm at radio.montezpress.com

performingbordersRadio explores the entanglement between Live Art and notions and lived experiences of intersectional and transnational borders, bi-monthly on Montez Press Radio. This radio space hosts and shares collaborative, sound-based performance work created with and by artists in the performingborders network.

This month, we end our radio residency with a conversation between performingborders and Howl Yuan to discuss socially engaged performance practices and the importance of using cultural work to weave connections between people and communities. Throughout the episode, we’ll hear excerpts from Howl’s work with sound, from song-making to podcasts and audio walks. 

Howl Yuan, or Yuan Cheng-Po, is a Taiwanese performance maker/writer/curator/researcher. His interests cross-cultural identity, mobility, site/place/space, and decolonized narratives. His works span different formats but are primarily performance-based, and are presented in theatres, galleries, festivals, beaches or gardens.

performingbordersRADIO: Episode 6 with Howl Yuan | November 2023

WHAT IS THE MIGRANT ARTS COMMUNITY? A CLUSTER NETWORK UNDER SPECIFIC LABELS? THE ACT OF SOLIDARITY OVER TRAUMA? OR CAN WE TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH?
Join Bristol-based performance artist Howl Yuan and Ania Varez in a conversation about social gathering, identity, collaborative friendship, celebration, and joy-making practices.

RE-IMAGINE COMMUNITY PRACTICE: In Conversation with Howl Yuan + Ania Varez

Audio podcast
Artist: Marikiscrycrycry | February 2018 
queeringborders interview series by Xavier de Sousa for performingborders. conversations on live art | crossings | europe.
https://performingborders.live
Image by Xavier de Sousa

queeringborders | Marikiscrycrycry

ACT II of full interview with Greg Wohead. For the full experience, please follow this link:

Audio podcast
Artist: Greg Wohead | March 2018
queeringborders interview series by Xavier de Sousa for performingborders. conversations on live art | crossings | europe.
performingborders.live
Image by Xavier de Sousa

queeringborders | Greg Wohead

Audio podcast
Artist: Sebastian H-W | April 2018
queeringborders interview series by Xavier de Sousa for performingborders. conversations on live art | crossings | europe.
performingborders.live

queeringborders | Sebastian H-W

Audio podcast

Artist: Rachael Young 

queeringborders interview series by Xavier de Sousa for performingborders. conversations on live art | crossings | europe.

www.performingborders.live
Image by Xavier de Sousa

queeringborders | Rachael Young

Audio podcast
Artist: Tarik Elmoutawakil | July 2018
queeringborders interview series by Xavier de Sousa for performingborders. conversations on live art | crossings | europe.
performingborders.live

queeringborders | Tarik Elmoutawakil

performingborders interview with The Center for Cultural Decontamination on the international project Borderline Offensive
More info: http://performingborders.live/2018/10/11/the-center-for-cultural-decontamination-october-2018

Center for Cultural Decontamination / Lola Joksimović on Borderline Offensive

performingborders interview with The Center for Cultural Decontamination on the international project Borderline Offensive

More info: http://performingborders.live/2018/10/11/the-center-for-cultural-decontamination-october-2018

Center for Cultural Decontamination / Tiago Prata on Borderline Offensive

Margarita Dorovska (House of Humor and Satire, Bulgaria) on Borderline Offensive

Serra Ozhan(MitOst, Germany) on Borderline Offensive

Junaid Sarieddeen (Zoukak Theater, Lebanon)on Borderline Offensive

Despina Syrri (Symbiosis, Greece)on Borderline Offensive

Saliha Yavuz (Turkey)on Borderline Offensive

Zuzana Kotikova (CIKE +KAIR, Slovakia)on Borderline Offensive

There There replies to Alessandra Cianetti's question: 

Dana and Bojana you have founded There There - a 50% Romanian 50% Serbian performance company - in 2010 and I have been lucky enough to attend both Eastern Europeans for Dummies at the RichMix in 2016 and Trigger Warning this summer at the National Maritime Museum. Both fun and disturbing experiences that playfully delve into a culture of fear and distrust of immigrants especially invisible and demonised communities from Eastern Europe. Why as a duo, you felt the urge to follow this research and how these works fit with the history of your shared practice? Also, how did you transitioned from the stage-based Eastern Europeans for Dummies to the more installative and participatory Trigger Warning?

Full interview:
http://performingborders.live/2018/12/12/there-there-december-2018

For more information on performingborders visit https://performingborders.live (a monthly newsletter and new posts out on 14th of each month)

Image by Maria Tanjala

Interview with There There | Part 1.a | December 2018

Interview with There There | Part 1.b | December 2018

There There replies to Alessandra Cianetti's question: 

From October 2018 you have been developing and touring Trigger Warning in Denmark and Romania as well as the UK. How those experiences have shaped the piece and its future iterations? What public engagement and responses you received in the different contexts? Finally, a personal curiosity, has the work’s reception changed before and after the Brexit referendum in the UK?

Full interview:
http://performingborders.live/2018/12/12/there-there-december-2018

For more information on performingborders visit https://performingborders.live (a monthly newsletter and new posts out on 14th of each month)

Image by Maria Tanjala

Interview with There There | Part 2.c | December 2018

There There replies to Alessandra Cianetti's question: 

In our conversation this Summer, you talked about social change and advocacy for the Easter European diasporic identities as the very aim of your work that you seek through interdisciplinary projects that involve live and visual art, design, sociology, politics, and more. How do you see your collaborative practice go? What are the projects you are working on for the future?

Full interview:
http://performingborders.live/2018/12/12/there-there-december-2018

For more information on performingborders visit https://performingborders.live (a monthly newsletter and new posts out on 14th of each month)

Image by Maria Tanjala

Interview with There There | Part 3 | December 2018

ALL THE TEA IN CHINA BY BURONG (曾不容) | DIGITAL CONVERSATION 2019

With huge thanks to (in alphabetical order) Franko B (UK/Italy), Alejandro Chellet (Mexico), Richard Dedomenici (UK), Miao Jiaxin (China/US), and VestAndPage (German/Italy).

READ, LISTEN TO, AND ENJOY BURONG (曾不容)' s COMMISSION HERE: performingborders.live/2019/06/14/al…rsation-2019/

ALL THE TEA IN CHINA By Burong (曾不容) is a performingborders | LIVE 2019 writing commission supported by the Live Art Development Agency.

Image credit: Richard Dedomenici

Richard Dedomenici 30th April 2019 - ALL THE TEA IN CHINA By Burong (曾不容)

ALL THE TEA IN CHINA BY BURONG (曾不容) | DIGITAL CONVERSATION 2019

With huge thanks to (in alphabetical order) Franko B (UK/Italy), Alejandro Chellet (Mexico), Richard Dedomenici (UK), Miao Jiaxin (China/US), and VestAndPage (German/Italy).

READ, LISTEN TO, AND ENJOY BURONG (曾不容)' s COMMISSION HERE: performingborders.live/2019/06/14/al…rsation-2019/

ALL THE TEA IN CHINA By Burong (曾不容) is a performingborders | LIVE 2019 writing commission supported by the Live Art Development Agency.

Image credit: Next Performance (Belgrade, 2016) Credit: Tina Maric

Miao Jiaxin 11th May 2019  - ALL THE TEA IN CHINA By Burong (曾不容)

queeringborders | Copenhagen Landscapes | Lasse Lau
Interview by Xavier de Sousa and André Neely

queeringborders | Copenhagen Landscapes | Lasse Lau

queeringborders | Copenhagen Landscapes | Jupiter Child

For more information on performingborders visit performingborders.live (a monthly newsletter and new posts out on 14th of each month)

Image: Alesa Herero by Bruno Simão

Guest Post: Alesa Herero | interview with Dr Licia Cianetti

performingborders is a collectively run platform for artistic research and creation, focused on notions and lived experiences of intersectional borders through international live art and performance practices.

Drawing from the knowledge shared by the contributors of the platform, performingborders has over the years created a digital and live tapestry of interconnected, transnational experiments through interviews, artist commissions, open calls, publications, residencies, workshops, conversations, events, newsletters, and performingbordersLIVE. All our work is freely accessible online.

Co-run by Alessandra Cianetti, Xavier de Sousa and Anahí Saravia Herrera, in collaboration with guest curators, thinkers, artists, activists and researchers.

Image: Jane Lam for performingbordersLIVE23 Our Bodies in the Commons at Battersea Arts Centre, April 2023

Popular tracks by performingborders