“I’ve probably inherited my mother’s exhaustion and my grandmother’s exhaustion...There’s such a thing as intergenerational debt – and it’s not just economic, it’s also energetic.” - Navild Acosta interviewed in Schon Magazine

How can we think about notions of human ‘productivity’, sleep as a space for resistance, and the enduring power structures that permeate current ideas around work and rest? Bringing together Flavia Dzodan, Quinsy Gario, and Joy Mariama Smith, we’ll engage in conversations around the politicised and racialised structure of sleep inequality and rest, the impacts of 24/7 productivity, the productive body, and activism as it intersects with these systems.

How can we talk about these questions in light of our present moment of enforced ‘rest’ for some and enforced work for others. How can we respond to the structures, fragilities, and failures of systems that are being made visible, now more than ever? Our guests speak from the perspective of their individual (and collective) practices about the intersections of activism, productivity, and rest.

In these conversations we want to highlight the relations, and metaphorical weight, between being ‘asleep’ and being ‘woke’, between being a political activist or doing nothing—questioning whether these labels can be inverted and whether there is also a power of resistance in ‘doing nothing’, in disengaging as a form of engagement. Is there a parallel to be drawn to the current situation of enforced quarantine? This idea of collective rest—and because of that collectively arriving in a safe state—is not as ‘collective’ as it seems. What are the anxieties and fears, over finances, jobs, and health, that emerge from the shut down of certain parts of our societies? And can we reach a collective state of solidarity when ‘rest’ means something different for each of us and the economy is demanding again? Should we be more ‘active’ than other times? The lockdown and the period of opening up again might be a good moment in time to rethink patterns and behaviour and to invent new habits and routines. The collective experience of the crisis is largely felt in isolation, but within its fractures new meanings of collective solidarity can emerge.

This conversation is hosted by Framer Framed, and is the second radio show in a set of two events initiated by Petra Heck and Margarita Osipian that explore the act of resting and the politicization of sleep, specifically as a weapon of resistance against "systems of oppression that have controlled and subjugated people of colour, women, and queer and gender-dissident communities"*. We are building on, and are inspired and educated by, the years of work that has been done on these topics by Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa in their Black Power Naps project. Questioning the politics behind who gets to rest, the exhaustion of activism and its necessity, and whether the act of doing nothing can be a productive power by itself.

* the words of Agnish Ray in their interview with Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa.

DONATE. In solidarity and support you may donate via PayPal to Color Block: Pandemic Edition 2020. Funds will be used to support costs for BIPOC to engage in Color Block’s physical and online programming for a much needed retreat for healing, rest, and care. Donate here.

Part I: Listening to...the power of doing nothing, took place on Saturday May 30th 2020, 16 - 19.30h.

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Stimuleringsfonds.

Bio's

A native Philadelphian currently based in Amsterdam, NL, Joy Mariama Smith’s work primarily addresses the conundrum of projected identities in various contexts. A sub-theme, or ongoing question in their work is: What is the interplay between the body and its physical environment? Rooted in socially engaged art practice, they are a performance/installation/movement artist, activist, facilitator, curator, and architectural designer. They have a strong improvisational practice spanning 20 years. When they choose to teach, they actively try to uphold inclusive spaces.

Quinsy Gario is a visual and performance artist from the Curaçao and St. Maarten, islands in the Caribbean that share continued Dutch occupation. His work focuses on decolonial remembering and institutional disruption. He is most known for the performance art work Zwarte Piet Is Racisme. He is a Royal Academy of Art The Hague Master of Artistic Research graduate, a 2017/2018 BAK Fellow, a board member of De Appel and a recurring participant of the Black Europe Body Politics conference series. His recent writings were collected in the book, ‘Roet in het Eten’ (‘Spanner in the Works’).

Flavia Dzodan is a writer, media analyst and cultural critic based in Amsterdam. She is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Sandberg Instituut. Her research is focused on the politics of Artificial Intelligence and algorithms at the intersections of colonialism, race and gender. In her research Flavia examines the ways that technology is created and deployed to reproduce historical patterns of social control. Her current research on “Beauty and the Machine” attempts to understand how cultural analytics would operate vis a vis semiotic codes, particularly in regards to teaching machines to identify highly subjective and culturally dependent ontologies. She is the editor of the blog “This Political Woman”, where she has written about the rise of the alt-right, Big Data, networks, algorithms and community surveillance. She has been published at Dissent Magazine, The Guardian and The Washington Post among others.

A 3 part sound collage & audio-visual broadcast for Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee

Duration: 25 minutes

Production by Thabiso Keaikitse

This broadcast marks the end of the residency of artist Kim Karabo Makin, who lives in Botswana and is one of four artists selected for a Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio residency during 2022.

Artist statement by Kim Karabo Makin:

An intertextual audio essay which endeavours to explore the transnational space that Medu Art Ensemble has occupied historically ‘in another South Africa’, with a focus on the route that connects Gaborone, Botswana and Amsterdam, the Netherlands (via Chicago). Satellite Activism notably traces the life and legacy of Medu Art Ensemble in contemporaneity, with a particular look at themes that connect the Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, 5 – 7 July 1982 in Gaborone, to the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, December 1987 in Amsterdam. Additionally, with particular reference to the Art Institute of Chicago publication The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster 1979-1985, the project extends off of my exploration of ‘the living archive’ – a live sounding of the archive as expressed through lived experiences and shared storytelling, where my practice considers the DJ as an archivist.

*Use headphones for optimum listening experience.

I do not, nor do I claim to own some of the selected clips, sound/video archives. These are all available online by their respective owners for free and fair use. This collage is for research and educational purposes only. Please contact for full reference list.

Part 1: out of site, out of mind

2022

duration: 6 mins

The voice of former poet laureate of South Africa (2018) and founding member of Medu Art Ensemble, Mongane Wally Serote opens with an analogy that explains how committed cultural workers collectively formed Medu’s ethos around 1978. Picture Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa playing their trumpet and trombone respectively ‘underground’ – what might it sound like as you walked underground towards the jazz hall, and eventually ‘opened the doors of culture’. What does art in the underground look and sound like? And in what ways might this have left an imprint on the site associated with Medu’s powerful red, black and off-white poster, Unity is Power. 2935, Pudulogo Crescent, Gaborone – across from the University of Botswana (established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana), and adjacent to the Alliance Française (a cultural centre and hub for language, arts and culture locally, notably also engaging in cinema festivals and symposiums that include both European and local film). I am interested in unpacking and sounding this specific site as holding a particular cultural significance internationally, for it’s ties to Medu, despite not having been monumentalised in our local memory. In addition, out of site, out of mind is particularly concerned with exploring methods of recording the spatial and temporal dimensions of this site, with respect to my positionality in engaging this history, as well as themes surrounding exile.

Part 2: open culture

2022

duration: 13 mins

Open culture closely documents and contrasts the Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, 5 – 7 July 1982, in Gaborone, with the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, December 1987, in Amsterdam. In fact, my research highlighted that there was another conference that took place in Amsterdam from 13 – 18 December 1982, entitled The Cultural Voice of Resistance, South African and Dutch Artists against Apartheid. These three conferences, festivals and/or symposiums were all engaged in the Anti-Apartheid struggle with a particular focus on cultural boycott, where the 1982 occasions closely engaged members of Medu Art Ensemble. Leading figure of Medu’s visual arts and graphic design, Thami Mnyele (whom was based in Gaborone up until he was murdered in the June 14 South African Defence Force Raid on Gaborone in 1985) is remembered as having left a lasting impression on Dutch artists, politicians and people interested in cultural exchange. His visit to Amsterdam in 1982 is said to have so inspired the running and continuation of the Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam to this day. Imagining 1982 – 1987, with respect to Gaborone and Amsterdam as sites of international activism, I am particularly interested in remembering and tracing these events approximately 2 and a half years either side of the June 14 Raid. Where 1985 is described as the year that Gaborone ‘lost its innocence’, I am concerned with investigating this moment in time as a traumatic turning point in Botswana’s Art History and subsequent creative development. Furthermore, I am interested in unpacking what connects Gaborone and Amsterdam amongst other notable cities around the world (like Chicago), as satellites, historically entangled with Apartheid South Africa and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

“Medu’s Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1982 and the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, held in Amsterdam in 1987, are but two examples of the heightened degree of organisation that cultural activism assumed.”

(Gule in Byrd & Mings, 2020: 47)

Part 3: intergenerationally

2022

duration: 6 mins

Refocusing on the potential for the moment that marks a part of the life and afterlife of Medu from 1982 – 1987, this piece considers the extent to which this fragment of the archive lives on in us today. By drawing connections between fathers Mzwakhe Mbuli – also affectionately known as ‘The People’s Poet’ and Keorapetse Kgositsile – former poet laureate of South Africa (2006), and their respective sons, Robot Boii and Earl Sweatshirt. Intergenerationally is particularly concerned with considering sampling as a tool for curating the living archive. In so doing, I extend a conversation that presents Amapiano as well as popular music and/or culture, as methods for connecting audiences and passing on knowledge across generations.

The conversation unpacks Makin’s final outcome of her radio residency with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, a sound piece entitled Satellite Activism. In so doing, Makin engages a conversation with Gollifer in considering her practice as an archivist, as well as in unpacking the potential for an exploration of the archive as ‘living’, with specific regard to the strong presence of oral traditions in the context of Botswana. In addition, Makin engages Makepe in reflecting on the role of the DJ as an archivist of sorts, in curating the living archive. Furthermore, with a look at the cultural significance of radio in the local soundscape, the three collectively present the sort of intergenerational passing on of knowledge that Satellite Activism embraces.

In considering the life and legacy of Medu Art Ensemble in and out of Botswana, the conversation also reflects on particular moments included in Satellite Activism. Through shared storytelling, Makin, Gollifer and Makepe also unpack themes surrounding dislocation, exile, community-building, and the potential for Makin’s radio art practice going forward.

This broadcast, alongside "Satellite Activism", streamed last November 13th, marks the end of the residency of artist Kim Karabo Makin, who lives in Botswana and is one of four artists selected for a Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio residency during 2022.

Barrel of the soul’s many inhabitants slurp alongside the stillness which slithers past the cries, and deep beyond the breath is that sensorial forgetfulness held by these walls.

Recommended listening method: headphones, and a comfortable seat.

Mikatsiu’s research during the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee residency focused on remote sensing, consideration of the different communication abilities of dancing spiders, questioning what is needed to sense the detached regions of one’s own body, and tuning enunciation towards melodies as they unravel stories into perceivable frequencies.

'Iconographies of Belonging' is commissioned by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, as part of our series 'Near Histories', curated by Radna Rumping. For 'Near Histories' artists are invited to develop an audio piece related to a history that is 'near', whether it’s in literal close proximity, or rather a history that is still unfolding. Here the essayistic format offers a (partly) subjective take on an event or situation that isn't fully historicized.

A transcript of the audio essay with footnotes can be downloaded here.

Credits:
Concept, text and voice: Endi Tupja
Sound scape: Dirar Kalash

Soundtrack:
Featuring track by composer and musician Dirar Kalash
Popular women's Dance from Martanesh at the Folklore Concert of Popular Albanian Music 1988, Gjirokastër, performers: T. Koxheri and L. Gjoni
Song: “Me Lot Bukën Tuj Gatue” (Making Bread in Tears) performed by Drita Suҫi at the Folklore Concert of Popular Albanian Music 1988, Gjirokastër
Recording of a Call to Prayer in a mosque, soundsnap.com

“A collision with the past” is a year-long attempt at approaching the history of the Kalenderpanden, a former squat located in the East of Amsterdam. The squat was in operation between 1996 and 2000, and, after its eviction, it was turned into luxury lofts.

The piece uses archive material that the squatters from that time made available: a documented timeline of both the squatting and the eviction. It also tries to touch upon how the practice of squatting changed in the past decades, since the 2010 squatting ban, and weaves in and out of how one can still get access to the Kalenderpanden building, two decades after.

While putting together the piece, between November 2020 and November 2021, there has been a resurgence of squatting as a housing practice in Amsterdam, as well as nationwide. So with this in mind, the piece links the Kalenderpanden to the newly squatted Hotel Mokum as well as a building on Spuistraat 59 and one on Ringdijk 8, both squatted by the Anarcha Feminist Group Amsterdam.

As if to say, “Wet of geen wet, kraken gaat door” (“Law or no law, squatting continues.”)

This audio essay is commissioned by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, as part of our series 'Near Histories', curated by Radna Rumping. For 'Near Histories' artists are invited to develop an audio piece related to a history that is 'near', whether it's in literal close proximity, or rather a history that is still unfolding. Here the essayistic format offers a (partly) subjective take on an event or situation that isn't fully historicized.

A .pdf script of the piece is available here.

Colophon:

Inspired by Rachel Sellem and Elki Boerdam, creators of the "InputParty".

Additional Voices:
Ana-Maria Guşu,
Jörn Nettingsmeier,
Jelle Baars.

Recording and Sound design:
Jörn Nettingsmeier.

Music by:
De 4 Touze Matroze;
DJ Lulu;
Kuijs Reinder Kakes Makelaardij Hypotheken Verzekeringen
and
Euronext Amsterdam, formerly The Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

With material from:
entrepotdok.squat.net;
funda.nl/koop/amsterdam;
Youtube user "vriijepiijptv";
a recent housing survey of the Onderzoek, Informatie en Statistiek department of the City of Amsterdam;

and news outlets:
itsgoingdown.org;
Vice.com/NL;
and Trouw.

Discussions of ekphrasis always seem to produce fertile associations and repercussions when thinking about the crossed boundaries between art and literature, imagination, representation and the unfolding and reproducibility of certain knowledge.

With Ilse van Rijn, Martín La Roche and Arif Kornweitz, this episode explores the history of the figure of ekphrasis, the traditional difference between poetry and painting (tradition of paragone), and how more recent poets and writers approach this categorical separation, to shed light on the exhibition I saw it by ear.

Find a list of references mentioned in the show, and for further reading on our website www.jajajaneeneenee.com

Also, this episodes contains two pieces of the vinyl record Écfrasis. These pieces stem from 2018, when Muro Sur invited 29 Chilean artists to contribute a rhetorical description of piece of art they would like to exhibit in a show in Amsterdam. The resulting descriptions are collected on a double vinyl, created with Martín La Roche and Giancarlo Pazzanese.

This show consists of 3 episodes:

• Ch. 1 embodied search(ing)
• Ch. 2 embodied remembering
• Ch. 3 Lungs Don't Fail Me Now

'Channelling' connects the medium of audio with other realms. Logistics, infrastructure, landscape transformation. As a practice, channelling takes many forms: tapping into otherwise unheard voices, an invocation, a form of transmission. In this online collective exhibition, three artists explore channelling through sound.

Curated by Andrea González, with works by Laia Estruch, Anahit, and Ainhoa Hernández Escudero.

Ainhoa Hernández Escudero's contribution to 'Channelling' is titled RAAAW. It is the first iteration of the project She Has A Message For You, which researches the phenomenon of spiritism that in the 19th century was an enabler for women and other excluded voices to be heard: a medium to speak through otherness, claiming a space of visibility in the intimacy of private spaces. Ainhoa describes her project as follows:

In RAAAW, I channel voices, stories, thoughts and presences from my room. The audio clips that you will hear are the result of seven different sèances I recorded at dawn during the month of October 2023. It is a practice I’ve kept up for many years, but this is the first time I have recorded it and shared it with others. The recordings are made with a binaural microphone, with the intention for you to to listen with headphones and your eyes closed.

Remember, the message is in your way of reading it.

Note 1: Some recordings are spoken in Spanish, while others are in English. If you would like a translation, please contact me at the address below. Algunas partes están en español y otras en inglés. Si necesitas traducción, escríbeme a la dirección a continuación.

Note 2: I want to continue channelling and recording in different spaces. If you have a suggestion for a place you want me to channel, please write to me:

List of recordings in RAAAW:

1. raaaw (18 sec.)
2. cantar_def (6 min. 4 sec.)
3. miau_def (1 min. 19 sec.)
4. corre_def (5 min. 18 sec.)
5. ear massage_def (45 sec.)
6. ya pasó_def (3 min. 46 sec.)
7. She has a message for you (1 min. 22 sec.)

15:00 06-07-2020

'Channelling' connects the medium of audio with other realms. Logistics, infrastructure, landscape transformation. As a practice, channelling takes many forms: tapping into otherwise unheard voices, an invocation, a form of transmission. In this online collective exhibition, three artists explore channelling through sound.

Curated by Andrea González, with works by Laia Estruch, Anahit, and Ainhoa Hernández Escudero.

'Confirmers of the Present', 8min 41s
'RX_004_Tr1_Stereo to master' 5min 3s

In these sound works, Anahit engages with two conflicting notions of channelling. The first refers to a contemporary need for hyper-presence in our synchronous society: an ever-flowing stream of sensory experiences generated by relentless synchronisations, where one sensation swiftly displaces another, leaving scant opportunity for any to fully blossom. The other recalls the primordial experience of being in time: attunement to natural cycles, the eternal flows of water channels, the ominous tolling of melting.

To capture this last aspect, Anahit made field recordings in Argentine Patagonia – suspended over crevasses, capturing micro-rivers of runoff from the Perito Moreno glacier. The resulting piece ‘Confirmers of the Present’ prompts the listener to immerse themselves fully in a single, uninterrupted soundscape. Against these beckoning drips, the channelling impulse of the synchronous society calls: the first part of the piece is an algorithmic composition, made up of data sonifications from the logs of continuous software updates on Anahit’s phone. These channels flow into one another: the inexorable ebb of water against the deluge of global data generated in our hyperconnected society.

'Channelling' connects the medium of audio with other realms. Logistics, infrastructure, landscape transformation. As a practice, channelling takes many forms: tapping into otherwise unheard voices, an invocation, a form of transmission. In this online collective exhibition, three artists explore channelling through sound.

Curated by Andrea González, with works by Laia Estruch, Anahit, and Ainhoa Hernández Escudero.

Channelling 1: Laia Estruch
31 October 19.00
jajajaneeneenee.com

Reflexiones Impro Plato, 22 julio, 2022, 20 min 43s
Reflexiones Copicat, 22 julio, 2022, 10 min 32s

The voice and the body are the elements that structure Laia Estruch's research, an artistic practice situated between sculpture and performance. Laia Estruch conceives of the voice as a sculptural medium, a vehicle with the power to synthesise and render audible. Her projects delve into the emotional potential of a capella and the untheatrical body, exploring the performative nature of language, sound recording, and its oral archive.

Laia presents two pieces in which her voice voices: multiplies again into other voices through matter.

In "Reflexiones Impro Plato," July 22, 2022, Laia reverberates her voice with a cymbal. Crouched beneath the cymbal, the improvised voice bounces and resonates. In "Reflexiones Copicat," July 22, 2022, she manipulates the recording while she records, creating loops and feedback.

Alec Mateo, our artist in residency during the spring of 2023 presents a 30 min audio piece as the outcome of this period.

"Part of a perpetual negotiation with narrative, the 3rd or maybe 4th installment in the Gotchu performance series, this time recorded.
For have thoughts on movement in transit to London. Anthony speaks to Abuelito. You watch lectures and cartoons, reminiscing. Your favorite part is in the middle. The story is ultimately about the stupor of sobriety, discipline, and adventure. These ideas are more complete in their text. One is the refuse of the other. Collage! ;)"

For more information and shows visit our website:
https://jajajaneeneenee.com/

In this episode "To Love Forever", they discuss the theme of Love, The Eternal Love, the Vampire Love refering to Film, Literature and other mediums of cultural . They will cover some iconic relationships, triangles, and lustful obsessions of and for their beloved creature of the dark, for half an hour.

For all the other Episodes of the latest season, check out website www.jajajaneeneenee.com

“What does it take to create a culture where it is allowed to fall into the bottomless abyss of heartache?”, asks Raoni Muzho Saleh. This poetic contemplation is the literary equivalent of Raoni’s ceremonial gatherings, which he calls “Mourning Socialities”. Throughout this episode, Raoni contemplates on the power and significance of the moan as an expression of mourning and how this sound connects with the profound states of loss and suffering. Interrogating himself, the listener and the societies of which they are a part, Raoni explores these questions in monologue and through moaning. By braiding the moan into the fabric of his speech, Raoni invites listeners to come together in a polyphonic groan to experience the commonality of grief. This bemoaning contemplation calls for a renewed relationship with the body and embodiment, where grief and loss are not only approached mentally and rationally but also experienced and expressed physically.

A transcript of the text is available here.

Raoni Muzho Saleh is a choreographer and performer based in Amsterdam. Born in Afghanistan and raised in Pakistan, his thinking and work is shaped by fugitivity as a radical movement. By dancing through the gender spectrum, Raoni has developed a unique movement practice that emphasizes “becoming other”, a continuous state of incompleteness. Through the use of materials such as textile, dough, voice, and text, Raoni invites a serious kind of play into space where all can become immersed in otherworldly stories.

This broadcast is the second of a three-part series on embodied listening and non-verbal vocal expression, curated by Radna Rumping. Other episodes: 'Laraaji - Guided Laughter Release' (out now) and ‘Laraaji, Raoni Muzho Saleh & Radna Rumping in conversation’ (3 October). All episodes will stay available through our archive.

For more information vGathering in a Polyphonic MOOOOAAAAAAANN Safeguards Solidarity Listen. Listen again. ahhhhhhhh... Take a moment to bring awareness to your breath. sighhhhhh What is present in your breathing at this moment? Listen again. ohhhhhh... Is there someone close to you? Listen to the space between you. Can you imagine what lies hidden within your comrade? hmmmm... Listen. As a choreographer and a dancer, I have been taken and persuaded by the moan in recent years. The moan as a choreographer, the moan as an ancestor, as a mentor, and the moan as an old friend. siiiiiiggghhhh This research has taken the form of both performances and collective lamenting events that I call "Mourning Sociality." For today I will share with you a bemoaning speech that questions how we can create a culture that guarantees the commonality of loss and grieving processes. I invite you to let this bemoaning speech sink into you with a gentle sigh. hhmmmmm What is our current cultural relationship with mourning, and how sustainable is this cultural behaviour? ohhhhhhh... Why is it normal to keep death hidden and confined to cemeteries and obituaries? For whom and for what is it beneficial to deal with mourning in this way? ahh ahh ahh aiiiiii The Western culture dominated by an imposed rationality, being the opposite of emotionality, prevents us from being present with death, with that age-old feeling of loss and mourning. aahhhhh-ahhhhhhhhhh We live in a culture where emotional disconnectedness and apathy have become normalised. Not too long ago, in this continent, the family of the deceased would hang white sheets from the windows to indicate that they had lost a loved one. The white sheets stood in solidarity with the family's mourning. In this way the grieving family signalled their pain to the outside world. The white sheets, which veiled the eyes of the house for a while, allowed for an osmosis of heartache. oooooooooeeeeeeeuuuhhhhhuhuuu These fluttering sheets acted as a porous barrier, freely moving the sorrow of the people from inside to outside, from private to public, and from silence to emotional expression. Therefore, the family’s suffering was not banished to the private domain; instead, through the signalling white sheets, the family’s loss also became part of the community's sentiment. aahhhh-ahh-aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh The sheets cried out to the community: "Can you see and hear the suffering of these people? How does their throbbing pain resonate with the ache lying within your own heart? Come, come and carry your own despair and weave it into the tragedy of these people!" AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH Why are these rituals no longer common in our modern lives? What is stopping us from surrendering ourselves in our grief, in our most vulnerable state, to the people we belong to and desiring the same from others? ssiiiigghhhhhh How come collective 1 mourning ceremonies have fallen into oblivion? uuhhhhhmmmmm Again, I wonder: for whom, or for what, is it beneficial to confine mourning to the private domain, behind closed doors? ooehuhhhuuuhooehhhh This disease called modernisation, driven by capitalist greed, is based on a specialised and highly developed form of bureaucracy. The promises of these structures include safety and an easy access to everything our hearts desire. Are these structures and the promises they make distractions from the creaking and groaning of our own corporeality and that of others? oooooooo-aaawwhuhuhhhaaahuuuuwwuuuuuuu Because, why rely on the support of the community when the grieving process can be efficiently and independently handled, for example, through a funeral insurance? Why should we be present with the “destabilising” state of mourning when we can quickly bury the dead and get back to our daily lives? There's no point in losing ourselves in the chaos and turbulence of mourning, immersing ourselves in its disastrous poetic experience, when order and clarity are at hand, right? hhuuwaa-huhhuwaa-huhhuwaahuhuwaauuhuhuwa-huhuhuu-huhuhh A world where grieving processes are orderly and clear promises resilience against grief. In a worldview ruled by rationality it is terrifying to be vulnerable and to loose yourself. But how much heartache do we have to sacrifice to become disassociated from our own vulnerability? aaahhhhhhhh siiiiiiiggghhhhh And once again, whom or what does this disassociation of affect service? Why do we steadfastly hold onto a culture that locks death away in hidden spaces, away from where it can be acknowledged by life? aaauuuwwwaaarrrrghhhhhh-aaauuuuuwwwwww The idea that death and 1 the deceased speak to us through the objects they loved, through a flame that suddenly ignites, through the sparkle in a gaze, through a fracture in a mirror. This idea rattles the order and clarity that capitalist modern life demands. The idea that death is intertwined with our everyday actions and experiences brings death closer, demanding that we face our own and another’s woundedness, embrace it, just as the fluttering white curtains used to embrace the house's windows. Martin Prechtel, a shaman whose teachings I follow loyally, speaks and writes passionately about the relationship between mourning and praising. The Tz'utujil people in Guatamala, whom he served as a shaman for over twenty-five years, practice the idea that mourning and praising are two limbs of the same body, thus inseparably connected. They mean that when you mourn someone, you are actually praising that person's life. And when you praise someone full heartedly, while praising, you are struck by the impermanence of life and, therefore, simultaneously mourning life. Martin says that mourning is, in fact, a form of gratitude for being alive and experiencing grief. 2 OUUUUUUU-OOOOOAAAUWWWAAAAAAAWWWWW Martin advocates 1 Reference to the poem “In Order to Talk With the Dead” by Jorge Teilliers 2 Youtube link to Martin Prechtel’s talk “Grief & Praise”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=UUwewfPPSbE 2 letting go of the idea that grief is an unpleasant state that needs to be resolved. Instead, he encourages us to let the heart's wailing be heard in togetherness, in an ensemble of misfits in love with life. What if there is indeed no solution to the age-old heartache called grief? What if the only solution is to feel the sorrow and be held by others in that state of being? ooooooeeehwwwaaauuuhhyyyyhhyyyyaa... What does it take to create a culture where it is allowed to fall into the bottomless abyss of heartache? What cosmological ideas and forms of relationships do we need to develop that allow us to surrender to that falling? In his poem "Details," Ghayath Almadhoun writes: "It was the most beautiful war of my life, full of metaphors and poetic images. I remember how I sweated adrenaline and pissed black smoke, how I ate my own flesh and drank cries. Death leaned his skinny body on the ruins that his poem had caused and wiped his knife clean on my salt." siiiighhhh... The Syrian-born Palestinian poet Almadhoun calls upon us to feel the taste of death and loss to safeguard our physicality. aaah-aarrrrrggghhhhhhhh Which persons around us, and I include other creatures and objects in the category of persons, carry the aftertaste of our grief within them? And how can we embrace that aftertaste without rationalising it? How can we love these persons so that they may add flavour to our lives? Let us bid farewell to a Cartesian worldview, where reason and rationality define our humanness. Instead, let us honour that it is through our corporeality, our fleshiness, our cries that our stories are interwoven with one another. aahhhhhh-aiiiiaaaaarrrrggghhhh-aahhhhuuuuhuuhuuuu… What kind of relationship with the body and embodiment is required to be present with death, to taste the aftertaste of loss? ggrooooaaannn... With what language do we prepare ourselves for the bodily experience of loss? How can we transform our Cartesian thinking and being into a language and a doing that ensures the palpability of loss? In this exploration of the language of grief, I let myself be guided by the moan. The moan which choreographs a dance of whining voices and which serves as my companion and mentor. The moan as an ancestor, connecting my body and voice with all other beings who also give song to the shivering in their hearts and share it with their loved ones. The moan is accompanied by sorrow, lamentation, sighs, and release, but it is also be prompted towards privatisation and/or silence. Away from where a larger group of bodies, bones, veins, hearts, flesh, and skins can be moved to feeling and to acting. aiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiiaii-aaaaaiiiihhhhh Because the moan is ugly and makes you uncomfortable. The moan is beautiful and brings you to tears. The moan is heavy and tugs at your heart with a pain that is not personal but relatable. The moan can be as simple as a baby softly sighing. hhhmmmm... The moan is dreadful and hysterical. The moan whines. The moan is angry. And the moan is incredibly bold. The moan provides emotional and spiritual release. The moan, as a lament, is akin to a nomadic traveler coming from afar, carried by the howling wind and 3 broken swaying hearts. In its mutability, the moan is a force not to be underestimated. Because it is in the nature of the moan to connect through expression, the moan refuses to be suppressed. Through its expression, the moan can move one to disobedience and resistance to abuse of power. And through its dynamic essence, the moan connects the grieving singer with the listener(s), weaving a web of affective sympathy wherever it goes. auuuwwhhhuuuhuuuuuuuhuuuuuuuuuuuuhuhu... The moan is utilised all over the world by professional mourners to bewail that sweet, old, inevitable pain that life brings. oeeehhhh Therefore, the moan also encompasses the feeling of being connected to the gifts of life. Ultimately, the moan transcends the human. The moan is the sonic fabric that connects us with the rest of the animals. The moan offers us, as humans, access to the non-human world, enriching our experience of life. Our mentors in moaning are indeed the whales, the wolves, the owls, the howling wind— in other words, the living world we’re submerged. oooooeehhhhhh-aaaaarrrhhhhhhhhhhhh-ahhhh-ahhh-ahh So what must be stirred within us, within each individual, to be able to listen to the sighing, whimpering, and breathing brethren that we already are? What do we need to rid ourselves from, as individuals and communities, in order to recognise the whining, moaning and lamenting in our own breathing and in that of another? siiiiiiiiggghhhhhhhh Through the moan, one expresses heartache and heart's joy. By wailing in togetherness, one weaves a sonic fabric of collective heartache and heart's joy. A community that breathes and lives in solidarity with one another is polyrhythmic and can be both harmonious and dissonant. What caring sensuality lies behind a multitude coming together to moan? Mmm... the word sensuality. ahhhhhh-yeaahh-ahhhh-ahhhhhhh What is sensual about offering support when someone is in grief? What is desirable about solidarity? When we gather in mourning, in that endless polyphonic groan, our collective sound cuts through the idea that commonality is impossible. UUUUAAAWWWHHHHAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHH Through our polyphonic lamentation, we test the possibilities of solidarity and integrity. When we allow our suffering to resonate through the continuous practice of moaning, we demand to be heard in our experience, in our pain, in our doubt, in our joy, in our shuddering, in our ecstasy, in our existence. AAAAAAARRRRGHHHH-AHHH-AWWWWWAHHH-AHHH What opens up, what reveals itself when we pay attention to that endless lamenting within ourselves and in others? From which wounds, from which sensed realities does that sighing sound emanate? From which sensuality does our body scream? hmmmmm….. What possibilities for the future do we study in our own whimpering and that of others? And what histories do we restore by gathering in collective mourning processes? aauuwww-aaaaauuuuuwwhhhh-uhuhu-uaaawwwwuuhhuhuhuuu 4 When we shift our precious grief from the public to the private, from expression to hiding, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to be carried by a sense of intimacy. When we no longer recognise the beauty in the lament of the other, we deprive ourselves of the chance to live in connectedness. Therefore, coming together to moan, to sigh, to scream, and to lament in song is a political act. oooooeeeehoooooohoooooooeeeeehhooooeeee Within each repetition and performance of both the personal and collective heartache, we practice a different world. By expressing the multi-rhythmic wail, we rehearse what is necessary to intimately embrace an utopian longing for solidarity. uuuaaaarrraaaahhhhhhhh-uuuuhhhhaaaahhh-uhuhuuu By being present, by expressing the polyphonic sonic fabric that intertwines us with and within each other we repeat, rehearse, reverb the realisation of integrity. hhhhhuu-huuuuu-hhhm-hmmm 5isit our website: www.jajajaneeneenee.com

Laraaji is a musician, mystic and laughter-meditation practitioner based in New York City, who plays piano, zither and mbira. His musical career includes over 50 releases: from the legendary Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (1980, a collaboration with Brian Eno) to the more recent Sun Piano and Moon Piano albums (2020, All Saints Records). Laraaji is the creator and facilitator of Laughter Meditation Workshops, sharing the ‘seriously fun’ practice of heavy laughter as a transformative and ultimately healing tool for everyone.

This broadcast is the first of a three-part series on embodied listening and non-verbal vocal expression, curated by Radna Rumping. The last of this three part series will be released on Wednesday, Februrary 7 2024.

Where to find inner stillness? How to perform not for human beings, but for space? Where do the sounds of celebration and grief intersect? These are some of the topics explored in this episode, where Laraaji, a musician and laughter practitioner, and Raoni Muzho Saleh, a choreographer and performer, discuss ‘the sonic experience of life’ with moderator Radna Rumping. The result is a lively intergenerational conversation on collective sounding as a healing practice.

Laraaji is a musician, mystic and laughter-meditation practitioner based in New York City, who plays piano, zither and mbira. His musical career includes over 50 releases: from the legendary Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (1980, a collaboration with Brian Eno) to the more recent Sun Piano and Moon Piano albums (2020, All Saints Records). Laraaji is the creator and facilitator of Laughter Meditation Workshops, sharing the ‘seriously fun’ practice of heavy laughter as a transformative and ultimately healing tool for everyone.

Raoni Muzho Saleh is a choreographer and performer based in Amsterdam. Born in Afghanistan and raised in Pakistan, his thinking and work is shaped by fugitivity as a radical movement. By dancing through the gender spectrum, Raoni has developed a unique movement practice that emphasizes “becoming other”, a continuous state of incompleteness. Through the use of materials such as textile, dough, voice, and text, Raoni invites a serious kind of play into space where all can become immersed in otherworldly stories.

This broadcast is the first of a three-part series on embodied listening and non-verbal vocal expression, curated by Radna Rumping. Upcoming Episodes 'Laraaji - Guided Laughter Release' (4  February) and ‘Raoni Muzho Saleh - Gathering in a Polyphonic MOOOOAAAAAAANN Safeguards Solidarity’ (8 February). All episodes stay available through our archive.

STUDIO is the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee podcast, recorded at different art spaces and cultural institutions. This episode was recorded at fanfare in Amsterdam in 2022. Hosted by Arif Kornweitz and Andrea González.

Recording and Production: Monty Mouw
Post-production: Julius van IJperen
Video documentation: Kyulim Kim

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is a radio space for curatorial and artistic practices. We commission sound and performance pieces, related to the research strands we set for our annual programme. We also host and produce radio shows and podcasts, by and with artists and designers. Our mobile studio has been at academies, biennials and museums. In 2022, we started an artist-in-residency programme. https://jajajaneeneenee.com

Find the address and archive of A Maior here: https://amaiorviseu.tumblr.com

This is the second of three STUDIO episodes in which we talk to artists that run curatorial platforms and artist initiatives about their projects, and the role they play in their own work.

Bruno Zhu (b. 1991, Portugal) is an artist living and working between Amsterdam and Viseu. Ranging from fashion design, publishing and scenography Zhu’s practice is preoccupied with fiction and its manifestations. His work was recently shown at What Pipeline in Detroit (MI), Cordova in Barcelona and HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark in Graz. Zhu is a member of A Maior, a curatorial program set in a home furnishings and clothing store in Viseu, Portugal.
http://www.brunozhu.com/home/

STUDIO is the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee podcast, recorded at different art spaces and cultural institutions. This episode was recorded at fanfare in Amsterdam in 2022.

Hosted by Arif Kornweitz and Andrea Gonzalez

Recording and Production: Monty Mouw

Post-production: Julius van IJperen

Video documentation: Kyulim Kim

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is a radio space for curatorial and artistic practices.
We commission sound and performance pieces, related to the research strands we set for our annual programme. We also host and produce radio shows and podcasts, by and with artists and designers. Our mobile studio has been at academies, biennials and museums. In 2022, we started an artist-in-residency programme.

https://jajajaneeneenee.com

This is the first of three STUDIO episodes in which we talk to artists that run curatorial platforms and artist initiatives about their projects, and the role they play in their own work.

Groaming Gallery, a roaming gallery in a backpack. Anyone* can submit to showing their work in the gallery. It is carried around roughly between 75% to 90% of the time inside and outside the EU (if we’re lucky). Each resident has a month. With a couple of week showings throughout the year. PV locations are posted on the day and you can dm for location.
Visit and submit to Groaming Gallery on Instagram:@groamingbaggallery

STUDIO is the Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee podcast, recorded at different art spaces and cultural institutions. This episode was recorded at fanfare in Amsterdam in 2022.

Hosted by Arif Kornweitz and Andrea Gonzalez
Recording and Production: Monty Mouw
Post-production: Julius van IJperen
Video documentation: Kyulim Kim

Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee is a radio space for curatorial and artistic practices.

We commission sound and performance pieces, related to the research strands we set for our annual programme. We also host and produce radio shows and podcasts, by and with artists and designers. Our mobile studio has been at academies, biennials and museums. In 2022, we started an artist-in-residency programme.