Foreignness of Sound, a programme of live art events exploring the links between sound, language, communication and cultural identity in the context of contemporary Caucasus.
Full programme on: www.artsterritory.org
Part of Transkaukazja Program
Slavs and Tatars, Lecture Performance: The Tranny Tease
Through the lens of phonetic, semantic, and theological slippage, The Tranny Tease will explore the potential for transliteration, or the conversion of scripts, as a strategy of both resistance and research into identity politics, colonialism, and faith. Focusing on the Turkic languages of the former Soviet Union, Anatolia and Xinjiang/ Uighuristan, The Tranny Tease attempts not to emancipate people or nations but the sounds rolling off our tongues.
Zorka Wollny and Maspindzeli Choir, performance
Polish artist Zorka Wollny will collaborate with UK-based polyphonic Georgian choir Maspindzeli on a site specific musical composition and live acoustic performance that explores the relationship between language, sound and communication using a combination of polyphonic singing, folk repertoire, intonations, accents, pitch and modulations.
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Zorka Wollny is a Polish visual artist whose work combines theatre and visual arts. She holds a PhD in Visual Arts from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and is Junior Lecturer at the Academy of Arts in Szczecin. She has exhibited at The Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Łódź Museum of Art, Wyspa Institute of Art, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Ujazdowski Castle. Wollny’s awards include the Eugeniusz Geppert Award for her achievements in painting, and 2010 Artist of the Year by Arteon art magazine. Her projects have been presented in 14 countries including Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.
Maspindzeli Choir is a London based Georgian polyphonic choir led by Tamta Turmanidze. Formed by Helen Chadwick in 1999, the choir has studied authentic traditional styles of singing with visiting Georgian teachers and choirs on many occasions. They have sung for the London Georgian community numerous times, and been invited to Georgia as part of the biennial Polyphonic Symposium at the Tbilisi Conservatory of Music six times, most recently in September 2012.
Slavs and Tatars is an art collective devoted to an area east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China. Their work spans several media, disciplines and a broad spectrum of cultural registers, focusing on a sphere of influence between Slavs, Caucasians and Central Asians. They have exhibited at MoMA, New York; Secession, Vienna; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the third Mercosul Biennial (2001); ninth Gwangju Biennale (2012); and eighth Berlin Biennale (2014); with upcoming solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Zürich, Dallas Museum of Art, and Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig.
Curated by Katarzyna Sobucka the founder and curator at Arts Territory.
Transkaukazja is an international festival that presents works from or inspired by contemporary Caucasus. Initiated in 2004 by the Polish organisation Other Space Foundation, it aims to foster cultural exchange between the Caucasus region and the rest of the Europe. Arts Territory is one of eleven co-organizers of Transkaukazja 2014 and is responsible for producing the UK programme.