Mapping Sounds in Exile

Line Up // Opening night

Soundtracks of Resistance and Memory - 7:00 pm   

Listening Session moderated by Carmen Herold (Goethe-Institut in Exile)
with Sarvenaz Mostofey, Sarah Farina, Ludmila Pogodina

During a Listening Session musicians will present up to three songs of personal or political significance, offering reflections on why these pieces function as vital soundtracks to the past and as foundational anchors for the future. How does music and sound, the act of listening, create comfort, belonging, address political topics or resistance? Listening to our environments, soundscapes and traditions–as well as contemporary contexts–becomes a political act. From radical listening to deep listening practices, participating artists will showcase a wide variety of sonic interests, influences and approaches.

Performances

Zeyo Mann (Rap Performance) - 8:30 PM   
Falyakon (DJ Set) - 9:30 PM
 
 

Artists

  Sarvenaz Mostofey is an Iranian sound artist and composer with an interest in electronic composition. With her background in photography and cinema, she has also worked as a sound designer in theater, with a secret life as a poet. Her projects incorporate space as an active attribute in the process of creating art, exploring interconnections between modes of sonic perception and concepts of space. She was a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2020. She is currently based in Berlin.
  Sarah Farina is an international DJ, music producer, curator and activist. She and her friends regularly organize the interdisciplinary event series Emergent Bass at the Berlin club Mensch Meier, which focuses on the historical awareness of cultural contexts of music and celebrates and centers Afro-diasporic influences in underground club culture. She refers to her sound as Rainbow Bass - describing very different sounds regardless of genre that come together in vibe and energy. What you hear is all you need to know. And what you'll hear in Sarah Farina's sets and music productions are seamlessly blended bass-heavy and futuristic beats with fearless forays through countless timbres, the hardcore continuum and beyond. Dark becomes light, lightness and positivity overlay heavy bass and rules are broken. She is also involved in the joint project 'Transmission' with scientist Dr. Kerstin Meißner to make the political relevance and history of international sound, club and rave culture audible and visible.
  Ludmila Pogodina is a writer and multidisciplinary artist from Minsk, Belarus. Over 11 years of working on the art project #KeepMinskWeird, aimed at developing the local queer and art community despite repression and a conservative environment, music and art have become tools for Pogodina to engage in dialogue with audiences, even in places where there is no freedom of speech. After relocating to Berlin in 2022, Pogodina continued working on multimedia projects exploring themes of memory, female socialization, identity, and migration. In the project *Dis/Location Re/Visited*, 30 stories about the feeling of safety, the loss, and search for home are told through words, photographs, and music. In her solo DJ sets, Pogodina seeks to mix both genres and languages (English, Belarusian, Macedonian, Lithuanian, Spanish, German, etc.), creating an eclectic setlist that includes everything from assertive punk manifestos and dark electronic tracks to sensual stories about the body.
  Zeyo Mann is a songwriter, rapper and filmmaker from Wad Madani, Sudan. With his work he documents the violations that he felt and sees. At the age of 5 he moved with his family to the United Arab Emirates, where he spent his youth. At the age of 14 he began to write poetry. But it was difficult for him to find his own flow. Despite his passion for the art of speaking, it was always a challenge for him as a stutterer. One day he spotted a beat on YouTube and tried to rap on it. He succeeded. From that moment on, he rapped on many stages in Sudan and since 2021 also in Germany. Music and films are my only comfort zone,he says, where he can express himself and share his thoughts. Art helped him overcome his difficult childhood of stuttering.
  Falyakon is a multi-instrumentalist and DJ based between Ramallah and Berlin. She hosts a monthly radio program on Root Radio, and is also co-curator & resident DJ of Al Musalsal; a series of live performances and DJ sets in Palestine and beyond. Falyakon mixes sounds to create multi-layered, genre-bending, unique and erratic sets while controlling time and distorting structure by warping rhythms and morphing tones in a journey filled with distant memories, interruptions, and projections of what is to come.