Ancestral Body Noise: Rituals of Real (ese) Ceremony

[German below]

The Ancestral Body Noise: Rituals of Real (ese) Ceremony is a procession concluding and honoring the six-week-long, intercultural healing incubator curated and facilitated by cultural researcher, future-folk musician and life-long psycho-spiritual student, Gugulethu ' Dumama 'Duma. The five participants identify as part of the BIPOC diaspora in Berlin: KooCha, Indrani Ashe, Yin Cheng-Kokott, Sailesh Naidu and Suelen Calonga. 

In the spirit of the programme's emphasis on biomythography and ancestral reconnection, the ritual process honors remnants of ritual through kinaesthetic and vocal intimacy, engaging the power of a collective creativity developed amidst political and social resistance in a time of social distancing. The ceremony holds space for the ritual performances of each participant and their exploration into what their ancestral body noise manifests in their multiplicity.

The event will be streamed on Oyoun's Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook channels.

About the performers

Yin Cheng Kokott is a Taiwanese multidisciplinary performance artist, certified yoga meditation teacher, emergent choreographer, and writer. She started professional training in contemporary dance, gaga, and various bodywork since she moved to Berlin five years ago. She meditates on tarot and yoga as a gateway to creative healing with others. Yin seeks to continue nurturing her creative skills for self-expressing and knowledge-sharing, with love. > yinitis.com

Suelen Calonga 's work is situated between audiovisual, performance, and, more recently, is moving towards strategies of artistic research as a poetic method in order to contain both her transmedia autobiographical narrative and the critique of processes and procedures that sustain the colonization of knowledge through arts and social sciences. Brazilian from Contagem, based in Berlin. > suelencalonga.com

Sailesh Naidu is a writer, researcher, and performance artist working in the sphere of migration, gender, and education. Their work interrogates the queer body as territory, ancestral knowledge, and building of queer personal narratives as archive. > migrationpersuasions.com

KooChaa is a multi-disciplinary performance artist and activist. "I am fascinated by what happens when masks fall and people meet each other in their vulnerability - what comes out behind it - insecurity, complex chaos, and pure beauty. Growing up as a black queer woman in Franconia in a village with only one street in and no way out, I initially tried not to stand out: get good grades, be friendly, be Franconian, fit in. In my early twenties, through contemporary dance and physical theater - and later through Butoh - I discovered my body, which has fascinated and inspired me ever since. For me, art is a means of liberation from given social (body) norms and rules or the search for a way to deal with them - a place where I feel alive and can determine my own rules.

Interdisciplinary artist Indrani Ashe ইন্দ্রাণী responds to a world in which transnational histories and hybrid identities have been strategically marginalized and erased, where profit-based algorithms continue the work of colonialism and imperialism, and perception becomes reality. Ashe was born in North Carolina in the United States, to an Indian mother whose parents fled the state of Bengal after the violent political upheaval of partition, and a father descended from Welsh-English settlers of the Appalachian Mountains. Wresting the narrative from these hegemonical structures, she creates necessary mythologies at the interplay between image, text, and performance: an intersectional feminist shadow archive, which regenerates a damaged past and creates potential realities for the future. > indraniashe.com

Gugulethu Duma, also known as Dumama, is an artist, performer and sonic researcher, born in South Africa. Her transdisciplinary practice involves consciously deconstructing and critiquing archaic modes of representation of (Southern) African sonic and performance culture. Her interests intersect as practice based performance research, and interdisciplinary, collaborative bodies of work centered around political-poetic imaginations. > dumamamusic.com

EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL

Curators, artists and cultural practitioners have been exploring identities, belonging and embodied memories through diasporic, decolonial and queer perspectives as part of Oyoun's first curatorial focus: EMBODIED TEMPORALITIES. The outcomes, encounters and queries will be presented and celebrated during the EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL from 8th - 18th April. View all events here.

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The Ancestral Body Noise: Rituals of Real (ese) Ceremony is a procession to mark the end of the six-week intercultural healing incubator, led by cultural researcher, future folk musician and lifelong psycho-spiritual student Gugulethu 'Dumama' Duma. The five participants in this incubator identify themselves as part of the BIPOC diaspora in Berlin: KooCha, Indrani Ashe, Yin Cheng-Kokott, Sailesh Naidu and Suelen Calonga. 

In the spirit of the biomythography and ancestral reconnection focus, the ritual process honors the remnants of the ritual through kinesthetic and vocal intimacy and harnesses the power of collective creativity that developed amid political and social resistance during this time of social distancing. The ceremony offers space for the ritual performances of the individual participants and their exploration of what their respective Ancestral Body Noise manifests in all its diversity.

The event is on Oyouns Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook Channels streamed.

About the performers

Yin Cheng Kokott is a Taiwanese multidisciplinary performance artist, certified yoga and meditation teacher, aspiring choreographer and writer. When she moved to Berlin five years ago, she began professional training in contemporary dance, gaga and various bodywork. She meditates on tarot and yoga as a gateway to creative healing with others. Yin would like to cultivate her creative skills for self-expression and for sharing knowledge with love. > yinitis.com

Suelen Calonga, Brazilian from Contagem, who lives in Berlin, moves her work between the audiovisual and performance. For some time she has been looking for strategies of artistic research as a poetic method that encompasses both her transmedial autobiographical narrative and the critique of processes and procedures that maintain the colonization of knowledge through art and social sciences. > suelencalonga.com

Sailesh Naidu is a writer, researcher and performance artist working in the fields of migration, gender and education. Her work questions the queer body as territory, ancestral knowledge and the construction of queer personal narratives as a knowledge archive. > migrationpersuasions.com

KooChaa is a multidisciplinary performance artist and activist. "I am fascinated by what happens when the masks fall and people meet in their vulnerability - what emerges behind them: Insecurity, complex chaos and pure beauty. Grew up as a black queer woman in Franconia in a village with only one street in it and no one out, I initially tried not to attract attention: get good grades, be friendly, be Franconian, fit in. In my early twenties I discovered my body through contemporary dance and physical theater - and later through Butoh - which has fascinated and inspired me ever since. For me, art is a means of liberation from given social (body) norms and rules or the search for a way of dealing with them - an area in which I feel alive and where I can set my own rules.

The interdisciplinary artist Indrani Ashe ইন্দ্রাণী reacts to a world in which transnational histories and hybrid identities have been systematically marginalized or entirely wiped out, in which profit-oriented algorithms continue the work of colonialism and imperialism, and one's own perception is confused with reality. Ashe was born in North Carolina to an Indian mother, whose parents had fled Bengal after the violent political upheavals of the partition of India, and a father of Appalachian Welsh-English settlers. By wresting her narrative from these hegemonic structures, she creates necessary mythologies in the interplay of image, text and performance: an intersectional feminist shadow archive that regenerates a damaged past and creates potential realities for the future. > indraniashe.com

Gugulethu Duma, also known as Dumama, is a South African born artist, performer, and sound researcher. In her transdisciplinary practice, she deliberately deconstructs and criticizes archaic forms of representation of (South) African sound and performance culture. She is interested in the connection between practice-based performance research and interdisciplinary, collaborative work that revolves around political-poetic imaginations. > dumamamusic.com