UnStumm is a project for improvised film and music (Echtzeitfilm) for cross-disciplinary and crosscultural collaboration between eight filmmakers, video artists and musicians from Germany and Malaysia. The project aims to create an environment of cultural and creative exchange, where a common complex artistic language is invented and used to communicate narratives, textures, colliding, combining, attracting worlds of sight and sound.
The group of four German and four Malaysian artists will work together in two different groups for three days to create an audiovisual performance that explores multidisciplinary improvisation as well as structure and narrative. The resulting artworks reflect on the themes of interculturality, cultural identity, cross cultural communication, the history of artistic thought and many other philosophical topoi. The concert encompasses two Echtzeit-movies, which are improvised by a group alongside a conceptual composition that has been worked out during the rehearsals in Malaysia. Every group presents a piece that is in between 40-50 minutes long.
Nicola L. Hein was born 1988 in Düsseldorf. He studied Jazzguitar, Soundart/Composition, Philosophy and German philology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn and the Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. He is mainly concerned about the search for new sounds on his instrument and finds different ways of integrating philosophical ideas into music. He received numerous stipends, project grants, residencies and awards and has worked with various renowned musicians. Concerts led him to Africa, Asia, Europe and America.
Axel Dörner was born 1964 in Cologne and lives in Berlin since 1994. He studied piano and trumpet at the Musikhochschule. He has worked together with numerous internationally respected figures in the fields of "Improvised Music", "Composed Contemporary Music", "Jazz" and "Electronic Music". He has developed a unique style of trumpet playing based in part on unusual, often self-invented techniques. He has toured in Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa and appeared on numerous CD and record releases.
Claudia Schmitz was born 1975 in Mainz, lives in Berlin and graduated from the KHM Köln - Academy of Media Arts Cologne. She uses pneumatic sculpture, multidimensional drawing and video to create new imaginary dimensions, to explore new forms of space. Recently, she exhibited in New York City, Budapest, Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2017 she was artist in residence at the prestigious MMCA Residency Goyang, South Korea.
Luis Negrón van Grieken was born 1974 in Caracas, Venezuela and lives in Cologne, Germany. His works deal with the interference between science, art and technology by operating with translation and transmission in narration, phenomena of reality and observation using video, photography, sound and programming, live cinema and computer-based installation. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and has a Master in Design of Interactive Systems at Media Art Centre d’Art i Disseny and University of Barcelona. Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
Fairuz Sulaiman was born 1982 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. His interdisciplinary practice covers digital and analogue formats. He has made music videos for local indie bands, animation for short films, and created visuals for stage using stop-motion, puppetry, 2D/3D animation, and live video mixing. His VJ-oriented work includes moving visuals on large displays or building facades to complement performance art, theatre productions, and live music events. He is the Programme Director of Digital Art + Culture (DA+C) Festival in Penang.
Tsa Meera was born in 1989, is a nature lover and an art enthusiast who loves to experiment with the ephemeral qualities of visual art from analogue to digital. Received her education at the Multimedia University with a Bachelor in Multimedia (Hons) Digital Media (MMU) and most recently an MA in Fine Arts and Technology (UiTM) whereby she explored Op Art as her expression of Duality in life. She aims to merge traditional art practices with digital technology, taking the best of both worlds and maintaining balance.
Kok Siew-Wai started out as a video artist, now active as an improvised vocalist and independent artist-organizer. She has performed in Asia, Europe and North America, including allEars Festival (Norway), Asian Meeting Festival (Japan), RRRec Fest (Indonesia), Playfreely and Choppa Experimental Music Festival in Singapore, E-Poetry Festival (USA) and more. She’s the co-founder, co-curator and director of the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival (KLEX).
Yong Yadsen is an improvised saxophonist. He has played at various music festivals in Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka. For example at the Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Festival and Asian Meeting Festival. Yandsen, together with Darren Moore and Brian O’Reily, form an improvised trio called Game of Patience. They have toured to Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. They released a debut CD album “Trial and Error” and a vinyl album "The Bad Sleeps Well”.
©UnStumm in Malaysia
For more information please log on to
https://unstumm.com/
This cross-disciplinary project is supported by the Goethe-Institut Malaysia.
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