Joshua Chiundiza & Yann Longchamp | Antigel Festival Residency

January 2022 & December 2022 — Multi-Disciplinary

Geneva-based organisation SHAP SHAP has been collaborating with Antigel since 2016 on the multidisciplinary AFRICA, WHAT’S UP? programme within the festival that aims to promote emerging and under-represented artists from the global south and foster dialogue and creative exchange and collaboration with Swiss artists.

During the opening week of this year’s festival, Zimbabwean audiovisual artist Joshua Chiundiza and Swiss DJ and interactive designer Yann Longchamp will present a collaborative performance piece at L’Abri as part of the AFRICA/LATIN AMERICA, WHAT’S UP? 2022 programme.

This collaboration comes about through the artists’ 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 evolved out of a desire to bring together their respective artistic worlds.

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.

The collaboration was originally planned to take place in two residency phases in Harare, Zimbabwe followed by Geneva, Switzerland. Unfortunately, due to travel restrictions in December 2021 the Harare residency could not take place. The artists however worked together in Geneva from 16 January 2022 and presented a work in progress showing during Antigel Festival.

After a year’s delay, the collaboration will resume in Harare with the residency taking place between 11 and 22 December 2022. The artists plan to going to continue exploring new methods of composition, improvisation and writing. Yann and Joshua will create new tracks together in the studio and potentially invite other artists and friends into the collaboration process.

BIOGRAPHIES

Joshua Chiundiza is an audiovisual storyteller, emcee and DJ from Harare, Zimbabwe. His work  explores his Chewa, Shona and Nguni heritage, expressed through music/sound recordings and performance, experimental film, text and performance art installation. In recent years, his work has featured internationally at festivals and museums, and he has performed alongside acclaimed musicians such as De La Soul, Georgia Anne Muldrow,  Natalie Stewart and Akala. Joshua currently sits as Festival Coordinator for the European Film Festival Zimbabwe, an arts programme commissioned by the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe. Joshua also runs The Husikisiki Studio, a storytelling and arts education agency based in Harare. The studio supports young people with skills in audio and visual storytelling, using the mediums of virtual reality, film and digital audio production.

Yann Longchamp is an interaction designer, sound artist and DJ. He graduated in Media Design from HEAD – Haute École d’Art et de Design de Genève. His practice lies at the intersection between digital arts and interaction design. His projects and artistic collaborations revolve around audiovisual performance, interactive installation and sound experimentation. Yann is passionate about the field of performing arts, and his research attempts to create new forms of expression and stage performance that create deep and hypnotic atmospheres. During his career, Yann has developed various audiovisual projects including an interactive piece for the ImmersiveLab of HeK (Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel) and a collaboration with Félicien Goguey on the 900Mz performance at CyFest in St-Petersburg. In his music, Yann is a member of the Studio 1157 collective and unveils a vast sound horizon. Since 2014, he has performed in various venues including Fri-Son and Mouton Noir in Fribourg, Le Zoo and Duplex Walden in Geneva, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Following these experiences, he presented his live project at L’Abri – Geneva and now keeps working on new perspectives for improvisation and spontaneous collaborations with other musicians.