Musica launches new commissions by Mo Laudi and Elsa M’bala

^{Mo Laudi and his new sound commission Lumumba’s Groove (2021). Mixed media installation. Photo Megan Leigh Heilig}

Musica is premiering two new commissions by Paris-based South African artist Mo Laudi and Berlin-based Cameroonian artist Elsa M’bala, created with a culturally diverse group of local residents: Bruna Esperi, Irandi Garcia Mora, Liesbeth Lemmens and Jeon Soonie.

These new sound pieces have been developed as part of the Curating Lab led by Christine Eyene from 25 to 29 May. The purpose of the lab is to share curatorial knowledge and skills, with the aim to give participants the tools to curate events for cultures often excluded from the mainstream.

Curating Lab: Sounds from the Community explores Pelt’s environment and cross-border region along the lines of nature, the constructs of borders, displacement, and migration narratives. It envisages sound as a receptacle for memory, cultural belonging, and considers how personal experiences are informed by a new environment while transforming the local sonic landscapes. In the process of developing this project, border closures, long periods of lockdown, and our new relationship with everyday sound within the private sphere have also been added to the curatorial thinking.

Exploring cubist-like forms with wood and metal, Mo Laudi has created a speaker tower, or sculpture, in homage to Patrice Lumumba and in reference to African communities in Belgium. The piece is inspired by African sculpture and Jamaican sound systems and is accompanied by a sound composition blending experimental sounds and field recordings from Klankenbos, the sound forest’s natural surroundings where it will be displayed.

In her new creation, Elsa M’bala is focusing on local voices and personal stories from the participants in the form of radio interviews, as well as instrumental experimentations. These compose a new installation presented at Radio Forest, located in the woods, and will be integrated in a unique performance by the artist.

The launch will also include the screening of a short trailer of the Curating Lab by South African artist Megan-Leigh Heilig who is creating an artistic video documentation that will be presented in Autumn 2021.

Curating Lab: Sounds from the Community
Opening: Saturday 29 May 2021, 2.00pm – 5.00pm (CET)
Also streamed on Musica’s YouTube channel.

The open-air exhibition continues to 6 June 2021 and coincides with Klankenbos Spring Expo.

Klankenbos
Toekomstlaan 5
3910 Pelt
Belgium

Curating Lab is an initiative from Musica, Impulse Centre for Music in collaboration with C-TAKT, Provincial Domain Dommelhof and the Municipality of Pelt, as part of Sounds Now, co-financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.