4 August to 5 September

Collective minds exploring a positive present and rewriting the past.

Wysing Arts Centre are delighted to invite A---Z (Anne Duffau) to curate the eleventh edition of Wysing Polyphonic, our annual festival of music and sound.

August to September

An online programme of mixes and soundscapes from CRYSTALLMESS, mobilegirl, LYZZA, AUDINT and Hannah Catherine Jones.

Listen back to the mixes and soundscapes on our Wysing Broadcasts website here.

Past:

Saturday 5 September
6pm BST

A special live broadcast of poetry readings with Whiskey Chow, Rachel Long and Tanaka Fuego followed by a newly commissioned performance from Maëva Berthelot and Coby Sey.

The Ungoverned looks at how we can deconstruct normativity through collaboration, exchange, texts, ephemeral gestures and other languages. This year’s programme emphasises the importance of difference and diverse ways of communicating: the morphing of words to choreographies, soundscapes, dialects and voices.

For the first part of The Ungoverned, five international musicians have created mixes and soundscapes experimenting between sound, music and spoken word and responding to the idea of being ungovernable and defying norms. These recordings present collective minds exploring a positive present and rewriting the past. Listen back to the recordings on our Wysing Broadcast website here.

The festival’s second part was presented as a special live broadcast of readings from three international artists, writers and poets and will be followed by a newly commissioned performance from choreographer and dancer Maëva Berthelot and musician Coby Sey. Maëva Berthelot and Coby Sey were in-residence at Wysing for two weeks prior to the broadcast. This unique and experimental collaboration between two active and engaging practices will respond to The Ungoverned’s themes of deconstructing normativity through collaboration and exchange.

With partnerships from The Wire, Tank Magazine and Noods Radio.

Access

Please get in touch with us to let us know if there is something you need to be able to participate in this programme. For example: transcriptions, subtitles, audio description. Email Ceri Littlechild, Wysing's Head of Operations on ceri.littlechild@wysingartscentre.org.

Biographies

AUDINT is a sonic research group exploring the weaponization of vibration, developing cartographies of liminal waveformed perception (unsound), and investigating the ways in which frequencies are utilised to modulate our understanding of presence/non-presence, entertainment/torture, and life/death.

Maëva Berthelot has worked with artists and companies including Emanuel Gat, Wayne McGregor, Ohad Naharin, Hofesh Shechter, performing internationally, but also developing her personal work.

London-based performance artist and Chinese drag king, Whiskey Chow’s art practice engages with broadly defined political issues, covering a range of related topics: from female and queer masculinity, problematizing the nation-state across geographic boundaries, to stereotypical projections of Chinese/Asian identity.

Anne Duffau is a cultural producer, researcher, and founder of A---Z; an exploratory and nomadic curatorial platform that explores artistic practices and knowledge exchange through collaborations, presentations, soundscapes, screenings and discussions. A---Z shares discursive practices that challenge preconceived ideas of race and gender identities, and challenges the powers that have shaped our (hi)stories.

Tanaka Fuego is a slam winning, multi published, international spoken word artist. Fuego has performed to sold out shows at Edinburgh’s Fringe festival and at Vault festival, has worked with British Vogue and given diversity and inclusion talks to the likes of Recorded future.

Hannah Catherine Jones (aka Foxy Moron) is an artist, musician, radio presenter (BBC Radio 3 - Late Junction, NTS - The Opera Show), composer, conductor and founder of Peckham Chamber Orchestra. 

Rachel Long is a poet and the founder of Octavia – Poetry Collective for Womxn of Colour. Rachel's poetry and prose have been published widely, most recently in Filigree, Mal, Granta and The Poetry Review.

LYZZA is a Producer/Vocalist & DJ recognised by platforms such as Pitchfork, Subbacultcha and The Quietus. LYZZA is resident on NTS Radio and was named 'One of the artists shaping the future of music' by Crack Magazine.

mobilegirl is a Munich-born-and-raised and Berlin-based DJ and producer signed with DISCWOMAN.

Christelle Oyiri (aka CRYSTALLLMESS) is a music producer, writer, DJ and artist who has toured and released music internationally, working with platforms such as NTS and RinseFM.

Coby Sey is a vocalist, musician and DJ, who, after years spent buzzing around the DIY artist circuitry of South East London. He has developed a distinctive presence as a performer and producer offering a shifting, disorienting vision of club music.

For a PDF of the long biographies please click here.