Ahmed El Ghazoly – also known as Cairo producer and multi-instrumentalist ZULI – will be in residence developing performances for Wysing Polyphonic throughout August. Returning as extended Polyphonic family will be Jennifer Walshe, Valentina Magaletti and Beatrice Dillon, Dillon presenting a unique back-to-back set with current Studios’ ‘curator in residence’ Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura (NTS). Both Flora Yin-Wong and Somerset House Studios alumni Erica Scourti will be performing newly commissioned works, and current residents Paul Purgas and Imran Perretta (AMRA) will present their commissioned performance from the Studios’ 2018 ASEMBLY series. Berlin’s mould breaking techno producer Ziúr presents the live UK debut of her new album and, for the first time in the UK, Jesse Darling and Ziúr perform The Low Bar, their radio play of music and spoken word, originally commissioned by facetime at Volksbühne Berlin and Berlin Community Radio.
Studios artists Marija Bozinovska Jones, hmurd and Jacob Samuel also perform, alongside Quantum Native’s founder Brood Ma. Hybrid artist NSDOS presents new performance SENDING.MOVEMENT 2.0, a creation of augmented music and dance, and Mun Sing, the juddering new solo project of Giant Swan’s Harry Wright, closes the Amphis stage ahead of new Hyperdub signing Loraine James.
The festival includes a specially curated programme of artists films, talks and discussions hosted by Emily Bick, Deputy Editor, The Wire; Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura, Curator in Residence at Somerset House Studios; and Dr Adam Harper, musicologist and music critic. They will be joined by Jesse Darling, Natalie Hyacinth (Sonic Cyberfeminisms), James Stringer (Brood Ma), Flora Yin-Wong, Jennifer Walshe, Ziúr and ZULI. Topics will explore how artists, musicians and audiences in the digital age create and shape their own realities, beyond the laws of physics; ways in which sonic, visual and social technologies have challenged notions of power, agency and belief; and how it’s possible to create semi-mythical whole(s) from going fragments, re-othering language, digital incantations and sonic translations.
Responding to the festival’s guiding theme of connection beyond the physical, Wysing Polyphonic’s 2019 film programme will include work by Aleksandra Domanović, Kristen Gallerneaux, Lawrence Lek, Project O, and Katarina Zdjelar.
If you have questions about access needs for the festival, please email Wysing’s Head of Operations, Ceri Littlechild, on
ceri.littlechild@wysingartscentre.org
Wysing Arts Centre and Somerset House Studios are pleased to be partnering with Cambridge Junction on the production of the festival.
In partnership with The Wire and CRACK.
Artwork: nimiia ïzinibimi by Jenna Sutela
