Unique recordings from Berlin-Neukölln art space, SAVVY Contemporary
SAVVY Contemporary is an independent, non-commercial project space for international visual and performing artists, founded in 2010 by curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung in Berlin-Neukölln.
The gallery invites artists from around the globe to address current issues in art, science, sociology, and philosophy. The aim is to foster a dialogue between “Western art” and “non-Western art” and to stimulate critical discourse on the development of contemporary art as well as on positions of art in the Diaspora.
SAVVY is currently based in one of the most ethnically and culturally mixed areas of Berlin, encompassing large groups of recently arrived citizens from Ghana, Cameroun, and Nigeria, many of whom have settled in the Africanisches Viertel, or African Quarter, as well as inhabitants from Turkey, Poland, China, the Middle East and the countries of former Yugoslavia, among others.
DJ-Set by Manuela Garcia Aldana during INVOCATIONS FOR THE PHOENIX TO FIND ITS FORM IN US, 2021. (c)Raisa Galofre
The SAVVY team is often found working in exhibition spaces, developing institutional practices to connect with local communities. Offering coffee, tea, home-cooked food, or wine to visitors, SAVVY inscribes hospitality into the art space.
Besides being an art space, discursive platform, eating and drinking spot, and njangi house, SAVVY Contemporary has launched SAVVY Records, and we saw this as a great opportunity to bring a bit of Berlin to our listening sessions and open ourselves up for introspection and conversation.
Hostipitality Suite - Jacques Coursil [SR001]
Hostipitality Suite
We’ll be playing a suite by Jacques Coursil that calls for us to listen to details, to pay attention to what is unsaid. Though Jacques Coursil uses vocals in his practice, the crux of his narration is with and through the horn. In the extreme subtleness and spaciousness of the sonic manifestation of narration, the listener is challenged to listen to one’s inner self, as much as relating to the sonority of the quotidian.
In the last stages of production, Jacques sent a recording to SAVVY that he described in the following way: “This piece is surprising and certainly boring for people who think that music is an entertainment. I conceived it like a painting (not dancing, not singing): a kind of lament. Some people will hate me for that: too bad! Others will take it as a document for archive. If you close your eyes, you will feel that it is missing a ballet with images. I have stretched time so much because the text was short, but also for some other things... So it is not jazz or Caribbean; just a piece of contemporary art. The synth arrangement is from Jeff Baillard, a Martinican composer and sound master. On one thing, you were perfectly right: only live performance is worth doing and from now on, I will not do any studio work anymore."
A Grace Project - Neo Muyanga [SR003]
A Grace Project
A Grace Project was produced in collaboration with SAVVY Contemporary and the Liverpool Biennial. Muyanga’s composition is inspired by the song “Amazing Grace” – a hymn loaded with history. Composed by English slaver-turned-abolitionist John Newton, the song was reinterpreted as an emblem of the Civil Rights Movement and is still performed today at moments of public ceremony and collective mourning in the US and across the world.
The work details some of the histories of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the reimagining of this hymn at this time in history presents an opportunity for introspection.
Neo Muyanga is a composer and sound artist whose work traverses new opera, jazz improvisation, Zulu, and Sesotho idiomatic songs. He initially trained to sing in choirs in Soweto and learned madrigals in Italy in the 1990s.
Treat your most starved sense (hearing) to a night out with the Programme Hifi team. Grab a friend or three and come by Saint Joaquin on Wednesday, March 16th. Come early and stay late for good vibes, natural wine, music appreciation, and conversation.
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Reinickendorfer Straße 17 13347 Berlin
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