Bringing their artistic worlds together: Yann Longchamp reflects on his collaboration with Joshua Chiundiza

Yann Longchamp is a Swiss interaction designer, sound artist and DJ. His collaboration with Zimbabwean audiovisual artist Joshua Chiundiza came about through their meeting while Joshua was an artist in residence at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva in 2021. At the time, Yann was an associate artist at L’Abri, where they spent several days together sharing ideas about electronic and traditional music as well as visiting the SMEM (Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments) in Fribourg. The collaboration emerged out of a desire to bring together their respective artistic worlds, and evolved during two residency phases organised by Shap Shap.

The duo’s project retunes elements of oral tradition and explores the notion of time-traveling through audiovisual storytelling that merges each of their musical influences and cultural heritage. It is a sonic and visual clash of worlds, mixing Mbira, Chimurenga and Sungurra music, European and electronic rhythms and hip-hop flow.

In this video interview produced by Bubblegum Club in the context of an editorial residency connected to our programme, she shares reflections from her residency, spent writing, watching performances and immersing herself in the Geneva performing arts scene.