saturday 23 april – 9pm
Invernomuto (I)
Negus – Celebration
with Lamin Fofana (USA/SLE), Primitive Art (I), Duppy Gun (USA) feat. I Jahbar (JA)
powered by Prince Healer Soundsystem (I)
live media act, italian première
Negus – Celebration is a ceremonial feast in several acts, which marks the conclusion of a journey that has seen the italian artist duo Invernomuto busy since 2011. Negus, their long term project, explored the convergence of history, myth and magic through the complex and competing legacies of Ethiopia’s last emperor Haile Selassie I. In Italy during the fascist rule of Mussolini, Selassie was portrayed as a black devil, justifying Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. During the same period the religion of Rastafarianism was emerging in Jamaica and claiming Selassie as their living God and the black Christ resurrected. Negus is powered from the void between these two irreconcilable realities. Invernomuto first came to the subject of Selassie through a nearly forgotten story told to them by a relative in their hometown of Vernasca. In 1936, while Italy led a gruesome occupation of Ethiopia, a wounded soldier returned from service to Vernasca. On the occasion of his return, the community organized a joyful and obscure ritual in the main square. During the climax of the ritual the townspeople paraded and burned an effigy of Haile Selassie I. The Negus cosmology was conceived by the artists through a number of installations, individual art objects, performances and short film pieces, before they conceived a feature length documentary. A collection across multiple platforms of signs and figures, voices and sounds, landscapes and trails, that allow to sense the amplitude and the protean genius of a mythical ethereal body. Negus – Celebration comes alive by expanding the integral screening of the film, as an epiphany, in a performing installation conceived with Xing, involving three guests and collaborators such as musicians Lamin Fofana, Primitive Art and Duppy Gun feat. the Jamaican I Jahbar. A program of live sets, sound and activations that, by summation, will cover the entire final evening of Live Arts Week.
production Xing/Live Arts Week
thanks to Marsèlleria, ar/ge kunst Bolzano/Bozen, pinksummer
Invernomuto was born in 2003 from the collaboration between Simone Bertuzzi,and Simone Trabucchi, based in Milan and Vernasca. Although they primarily work in moving image and sound, Invernomuto also integrate sculpture, publishing, and performance in their practice. Recent solo exhibitions include, in 2015: Africa Addio, pinksummer, Genoa, MALÙ, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto, Artspeak, Vancouver, Wondo Genet, AuditoriumArte, Rome, Anabasis Articulata,; in 2014: Triennale di Milano, Milan, Marsèlleria, Milan, Negus–Far Eye, Museion, Bozen, I-Ration, ar/ge kunst, Bozen; and previously The Celestial Path, GAMeC, Bergamo, and Simone, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara. Group shows and festivals (selection): Nero su Bianco, American Academy, Rome, La Scrittura degli Echi, MAXXI, Rome, Glitch. Interferenze tra arte e cinema in Italia, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Black Star Film Festival, Philadelphia, Così Accade, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin,Terre Vulnerabili, Hangar Bicocca, Milanand Netmage 09, Bologna. In 2013 Invernomuto was a finalist in the 9th Edition of the Furla Art Award and won the first edition of the MERU ART*SCIENCE Award. In 2016 they produce their first full-length film Negus, also selected for Berlinale Talents (Berlin). Bertuzzi and Trabucchi also pursue individual practices in the field of music, performing under the names Palm Wine and Dracula Lewis respectively.
www.invernomuto.info
Primitive Art is an experimental music project created in Milan in 2011 by Matteo Pit and Jim C. Nedd. Digital soundscapes and materic percussions are the high resolution backdrop for words, verses and shouts. Hypnotic and pulsing beat driven music from the sunset of the 2023 global warming landscape. Through the fog the duo elevates a dub elegy for the metropolis of the future. In 2013 they released the LP Problems for Hundebiss records.
soundcloud.com/primitive-art
Duppy Gun Productions is a label founded in Portmore, Jamaica, 2011, by Los Angeles musicians Sun Araw (Cameron Stallones) and M. Geddes Gengras. Stallones & Gengras ventured to the island to record an album with roots-reggae chaplains The Congos, and soon began collaborating with the local music community centered around the fishing village of Forum. Duppy Gun came to fruition with the release of a 12-inch Multiply/Earth featuring vocals by Dayone (Carlton Sappleton) and Early One (Alan Pitt) over bugged riddims by the Duppy Founders. Duppy Gun has recently brought a steady stream of Outer Orbit Dancehall Selections on 12-inch to the public by curating an alchemical bond of warped riddims from worldwide sources and vocal fire from The Island. For Invernomuto’s Negus Celebration Duppy Gun will involve I Jahbar (Oneil Thomas), who lives and works on his farm near Kingston where he cares for his family and fosters local talent.
www.duppygun.com
Lamin Fofana is a New York based electronic producer and DJ. His instrumental electronic music contrasts the reality of our world with what’s beyond and explores questions of movement, migration, alienation, and belonging. He is from Sierra Leone, lived in Guinea, and immigrated to the United States in 1997. He established the NYC imprint SCI-FI & FANTASY in 2012 with Paul Lee.
soundcloud.com/laminfofana