PICO: Un parlante de Africa en América

Sidney Reyes Reyes is a radio presenter and record collector based in Barranquilla. In 2013, he founded his own radio station Benkos FM Estereo, which is dedicated to the Afrodescendent community of Barranquilla. For PICO: Un parlante de África en América, he recorded a special episode for his show Africando focusing on African music, its culture and tradition both in Africa and Colombia.

Head presenter at Benkos FM: Braulio Simarra Cañate
Coordinador at Benkos FM: Emir Caicedo Ovalle
Prorgramme Advisor for Africando: Manuel Hernández (Cho Mane)

This commission is part of 'PICO: Un parlante de África en América', an exhibition by Invernomuto & Jim C. Nedd plus contributions by Axis Arkestra, Don Alirio, Dairo Barriosnuevo, Larisa Kingston Mann a.k.a. DJ Ripley, Rabz Lansiquot, Edna Martinez, Christelle Oyiri, Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Jeanpi Perreo, Sidney Reyes Reyes, Shannen SP and more TBC at Auto Italia, London.

Sidney Reyes Reyes - Africando

Axis Arkestra is a project founded by Artists Melika Ngombe Kolongo and Curtly Thomas in 2020. With an aim to shift the axis of perception; the growing Arkestra  directs a shift in social positioning and the development of hidden information materials. With the meeting of sonic and visual as primary renders Axis Arkestra  uses the tools of Improvisation and play to reveal alternative forms of knowledge production and communication lines with our Ancestral sources. 

This commission is part of 'PICO: Un parlante de África en América', an exhibition by Invernomuto & Jim C. Nedd plus contributions by Axis Arkestra, Don Alirio, Dairo Barriosnuevo, Larisa Kingston Mann a.k.a. DJ Ripley, Rabz Lansiquot, Edna Martinez, Christelle Oyiri, Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Jeanpi Perreo, Sidney Reyes Reyes, Shannen SP and more TBC at Auto Italia, London.

Axis Arkestra - The Commandant Zabra Effect

A newly commissioned mix by Jeanpi Perreo, a Barranquilla-based picotero, producer and singer. He is part of the El Rey Latino, a sound system known for its innovative verbenas blending guarapo with benga and techno.

Jeanpi Perreo

A new mix commission by artist, DJ and curator Rabz Lansiquot.

Beginning with Brixton-based Linton Kwesi Johnson's poem 'Bass Culture' as a framing, this mix explores a range of sounds from Black British rave culture. Jumping around in time covering the last 30 years, this bass-heavy collection of music includes Instrumental Grime, UK Funky, UK Garage, Bruk, Broken Beat and early Dubstep. It was brought together with the intention of reminding us of the Black radical roots of London's underground scenes which were heavily policed and sometimes banned, before being co-opted and divorced from their origins. To Rabz, it sounds like growing up in South London, before the clubs closed and the gentrifiers moved in, and it's the sound of an under-appreciated aspect of Black British resistance.

Rabz Lansiquot

A newly commissioned all vinyl mix by Edna Martinez

In this vinyl selection Edna presents us with an Afro-Caribbean musical journey - a picotera and verbenera selection focused on the roots - a return to origin that simultaneously connects us with others and with who we are. The selection starts with an emblematic song from a Cartagena neighborhood (Getsemani) and travels through the Antillean Caribbean, dialogues with Africa, and closes with Afro-Colombian rhythms.

Edna Martinez is a DJ / Selector and artist from the Colombian Caribbean based in Berlin. Her musical selection is linked to her artistic research exploring autobiographical migratory routes. The concept of resistance plays an important role in her artistic practice. As a result, her mixes deliver a mixture of Tropical, African rhythms, Latin grooves, folklore and poly rhythmic music from the Caribbean, the Arab world and beyond.

Edna Martinez

A new mix commission by Black Obsidian Sound System.

Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) was established in the summer of 2018 with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans and non binary people of colour involved in art, sound, music and radical activism. Following in the legacies of sound system culture B.O.S.S.'s intention is to learn, build and sustain a resource for collective struggles. The system, based in London, is available to use or rent by community groups & others with the purpose of amplifying, connecting and uplifting QTIBPOC.  

This mix is brought to you by members Mellowdramatics and Pepper Coast.

Black Obsidian Sound System

At once dark and playful, Kampala based DJ, producer and artist Authentically Plastic use Gqom, Vogue and Techno as bases to explore new and alternative sounds. Their music is influenced by electronic Northern Ugandan rhythms, early acid experiments, and Afro-futurism and explores their political context through densely layered and improvisational mixes. 

Authentically Plastic run a roving and riotous club night in Kampala called 'ANTI-MASS', that provides space for femme, queer and experimental artists to explore music and performance in an increasingly social conservative climate.

The mix is a part of the digital programme for 'PICO: Un parlante de Africa en América', alongside new mix and text commissions by Black Obsidian Sound System, Edna Martinez, Rabz Lansiquot, Jeanpi Perreo, Axis Arkestra and many more. Find them on www.autoitaliasoutheast.org

Authentically Plastic

For this week’s contribution to the digital programme we’re pleased to share Concierto Virtual, a newly commissioned mix by Barranquilla-based picotera Lilibeth.

The mix is a part of the digital programme for 'PICO: Un parlante de Africa en América', alongside new mix and text commissions by Black Obsidian Sound System, Edna Martinez, Rabz Lansiquot, Jeanpi Perreo, Axis Arkestra and many more. Find them on www.autoitaliasoutheast.org

Image: Jim C. Nedd

Lilibeth – Concierto Virtual

'Techna Respectademica' is a mixtape album looking at the dialectics of riddim, techno, and the radical divergence and historical lineage of reggaeton. It looks at the relentlessly shifting face and defiance of South African sgubhu and yaadt music as a deeper listen-in on what complexly racialised notations of vocalities would sound like if the mixtape, the club, the yaadt (the backyard, parking lot, open gathering space), the street, the taxi and the sound system were metronomous interlocutors for black vocality and autonomy. What does vocality look like for persons, bodies, accents, genders, class-categories who are denied...vs. those who are readily granted access, and what would this sound like in a mixtape?

BŪJIN [ Dani Kyengo O'Neill] is a Kenyan- South African composer, director, noisemaker, producer, instrumentalist and DJ. Their current research looks deeper into black sonic auralities, dialogues of riddim histories in the diaspora, experimental sound production, filmmaking and somatics as liberatory practices informed by sound, assembly, aural imagery, choreography and Afrikan queer lived realities. Their composition practice challenges perspectives of formal language and its various limitations, where white-cube-capitalist ways of engaging art have failed us.

Sgubu Sa (Yaadt Scholar Mix)

Black Architechno

Reggaetonademico

For this week’s contribution to the digital programme we’re pleased to share ‘A REAL TRICK' a new mix by Zurich-based artist and researcher Yara Dulac Gisler – who works under the alias I-vye.

This new mixtape is available on our website alongside mix and text commissions by BŪJIN, Lilibeth, Authentically Plastic, Black Obsidian Sound System, Edna Martinez, Rabz Lansiquot, Jeanpi Perreo, Axis Arkestra and many more. ⁠Find them on www.autoitaliasoutheast.org

Image: Kim Coussée

I-vye - A REAL TRICK

A newly commissioned mix by Christelle Oyiri combining retro zouk, modern zouk and kompa.

Christelle Oyiri (also known as Crystallmess) is a DJ, producer, writer and multi-disciplinary artist. Through Oyiri’s multidisciplinary practice she tackles subjects of experimental futurisms, digital culture, and ‘the warm embrace of black secrecy’. She has exhibited at Lafayette Anticipations and La Gaité Lyrique in Paris, Cinema Nova in Brussels, Les Urbaines and Espace Arlaud in Lausanne, and Auto Italia in London amongst others. In addition, she tours internation- ally through her work as a DJ and producer and is currently a recipient of the NTS Artist Development Programme award.

Christelle Oyiri presents : SOUKOUGNAN Volume I

In conjunction with our exhibition PICO: Un parlante de África en América we’re sharing a weekly series of online commissions by a global group of visual and sonic practitioners. This series maps Afro-Diasporic visual and sonic practices as both an outcome and facilitator of cultures of resistance. This audio work is available on our website alongside mix and text commissions by BŪJIN, Lilibeth, Authentically Plastic, Black Obsidian Sound System, Edna Martinez, Rabz Lansiquot, Jeanpi Perreo, Axis Arkestra and many more. ⁠Find them on www.autoitaliasoutheast.org

The final instalment of the digital commission series is brought to you by artists Invernomuto and Jim C. Nedd. This new audio work was recorded in March 2020 at the Carnaval del Sur Occidente, Barranquilla, during the production of ‘Grito – Las Brisas de Febrero’, a new commission for 11th Liverpool Biennial: The Stomach and the Port.

Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi live and work in Milan, Italy. They have been collaborating as Invernomuto since 2003, focusing primarily on moving image and sound, while often integrating sculpture, performance and publishing into their practice. Bertuzzi and Trabucchi have developed individual lines of research into sound with the outlets Palm Wine and STILL, respectively. Invernomuto won the Museion Prize 1 (2017) and were finalists for the MAXXI Bvlgari Prize (2018). Recent exhibitions include 58th Venice Biennale, Italy (2019); Tate Modern,UK (2018); Manifesta 12, Italy (2018); and Nuit Blanche 2017, France (2017).

Jim C. Nedd lives and works in Milan, Italy. Nedd is an Afro-Colombian interdisciplinary storyteller, involved in sonic environments and visual arts. Founder of the experimental band Primitive Art alongside Matteo Pit, Nedd also operates as a photographer in both advertising and editorial projects, as well as part of the Toiletpaper collective assisting Pierpaolo Ferrari.

Invernomuto and Jim C. Nedd - Carnaval del Sur Occidente

Auto Italia is an artist-run organisation and project space that commissions new work, bringing together international networks of artists committed to the development of emerging practices and discussions in contemporary art.

Auto Italia

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