stone witnessing – resonances in the swirls
a listening performance/essayistic dj-set
in the framework of
«rights of nature»
the sint lucas antwerpen research week
extra city kunsthal
antwerpen, 2022
slarg
Special Thanks to Marnie Slater, Petra Brabandt, Ursula Vogel
The performance was also shown at:
_ZHdK, Zurich University of the arts in the framework of
«Frühjahrsakademie: Sich verlandschaften – auf der Suche nach einer relationalen Praxis» in 2023.
Special Thanks to Ines Kleesattel & Leonie Süess
_Cabaret Voltaire Zürich in the framework of
the publication release of insert #4 und #5 «dis/sense in der Anthropozänkritik», 2024.
_Filmfestival Locarno, in the framework of Basecamp, 2024.
«The shake that passes will echo.
The wave that recedes will come back.
The mountain that rumbles will roar.»
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season
«In order to withstand the weather we have to become stone.»
― Audre Lorde via Sara Ahmed
«Stone Witnessing» is a listening performance meandering through stratas of deep time and queer temporality, listening positionality, solidified queerness transforming on broken earth, stone butches, pillow rocks and rocky transitions, inhuman geography and racialized geology, animate inanimacy, colliding tectonic plates, crumbling plateaus and non-extractivist frequencies of relationality.
For «Stone Witnessing», which blends improvisation, tender noise and essayistic mixing, sound artist Aio Frei seeks the seemingly insurmountable temporary connection with stones through sonic touch and melts thought-pebbles by a range of queer voices into an sedimentation about geologic temporality and histories of non/separability.
With thoughts and texts by Kathryn Yusoff, Sara Ahmed, N.K. Jemisin, Stephanie Springgay & Sarah E. Truman, Aio Frei, Audre Lorde, Trinh T. Minh Ha, Mel Y. Chen, Toni Morrison, Nona Inescu, Ursula K. LeGuin, Sara Maitland, Eli Clare, Sabrina Imbler, Nina Simone
Texts spoken by: Tracy September, André Veigas Pereira, Sally Schonfeldt, Izidora I Lethe, Aio Frei
Sounds by: Nina Simone, Morteratsch Glacier, Knud Viktor, Potter Natalizia Zen, Fuj||||||||||ta, Eleh, Jeanne Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton, CVX, «Sinnerman» by Nina Simone interpreted by Tracy September
Resonating with: Slate stones from Safiental (with Lithic Alliance), Lava stones from La Graciosa, Stone Records from southern Italy, Porcelain Records by Ursula Vogel
Photos: Danial Shah, Daniel V. Keller, Aio Frei