As part of an ongoing partnership with British Council, we are working with an international delegation of curators, creative producers and programmers across cross-disciplinary work. They all have an interest in the intersection of arts, music and technology and will be attending SXSW Online 2022. 

 

If you’d like to connect directly with them, please do get in touch. 

 

Marianella Baladan - Curator / Producer Artlab (Argentina)

 

 Marianella has been Curator at the art and technology platform Artlab in Buenos Aires. Artlab recently opened a new venue for shows and exhibitions and it also has a Virtual Gallery. In this role, Marianella curates the different artistic projects that are carried out within the framework of the Artlab Artistic Residencies programme in collaboration with Amplify DAI, the British Council initiative that promotes the visibility and professional development of creators identified as women. The resulting works are presented in the different editions of the MUTEK Festival network to which the platform belongs. She also works as independent curator for different projects such as A/V A1E5 project, by the Spanish artists Ana Zaragoza and Efren Mur, and Pleiadian Key Tones, the Techno-sounding EP by Argentinian artist Jonás Kopp. Since March 2021 she is the curator of the independent German techno sound label "Onna Bushi Records". As a writer, she collaborates with articles in the specialized electronic music magazine DJ Mag Latin America. She is also an art dealer for NFT, working in marketing and for the visibility of the works of Argentine digital artists at the Foundation platform.
 

Xu Cheng – Sound Artist (China)

 

Xu Cheng, a sound artist based in Shanghai. He is a practitioner and organizer of sound activities. He dabbles in experimental music, improvisation, electronic music and so forth. Apart from the music ontology, Xu is also interested in the interaction between sound and social spaces and its behaviors and manifestations. Xu works with varied forms of sound art: installations, experimental music, performances, and theatre.

 

Ng Chor Guan - Co-founder Toccata Studio, renowned Malaysian multidisciplinary artist and composer (Malaysia)

 

Guan was the musical director of DanceNorth Australia’s “Twilight”, a winning project of Australia Dance Awards. He was selected for KulturKontakt, a 3 months artist residency programme by Austrian Ministry of Culture.  Guan was commissioned to create ‘Finding Malta’ for AltoFest Malta in conjunction to Valletta as European Cultural Capital 2018, commissioned by WeiWuYing National Center for the Arts in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to create ‘Finding Takao’ in 2019.  He initiated ‘Project 2020’, dedicated to explore arts-science boundaries and continue to examine ideas of time and change, create imaginative future. 

 

He has published 13 CD of original music，latest being original music script for stage production '2020:Timescaper' and continues to excel in multidisciplinary contemporary creation.

 

Chico Dub - Director Novas Frequências (Brazil)

 

Chico Dub is a curator and researcher specialized in experimental music and sound art. He is the curator and director of Novas Frequências , an international digital arts festival created in 2011 in Rio de Janeiro; member of SIM São Paulo (International Music Week of São Paulo) board, and manager of Incidências Sonoras (“Sound Incidents”) – an experimental music platform developed by Pro Helvetia Swiss Institute. Chico is currently acting as Oi Futuro artistic director. Oi Futuro is an innovation and creative institute, one of the main organisations in the Brazilin Arts sector and one of the main British Council partners in Brazil with which we have been working on three programmes: Pontes (2018-21), ASA – Amplified Sonic Arts (2018-22) and Amplify (2022). Novas Frequencias is our partner at Amplify and hosted two residencies with Brazilian and British artists. The collaborative works developed during the residencies can be watched on the festival virtual gallery, an immersive environment presenting the online festival programme. Chico has solid understanding of the immersive arts practice, the skills needed, and challenges involved in the field. His position as artistic director at Oi Futuro places him in a strategic position to develop immersive arts programmes which are in the core of Oi Futuro’s business.

 

Adham Hafez - Artistic Director HaRaKa platform (Egypt) 

 

Adham Hafez is a choreographer, composer, performer and theorist. His work encompasses postcolonial studies, the Anthropocene and performance, politics of choreography, Middle East and Arab art history, alternative modernities and climate change. As an artist and a theorist his work has been presented internationally at world renowned venues including Hebbel Am Ufer, Cairo Opera House, MoMA PS1, Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Damascus
Opera House, La Mama Theatre, among others. He publishes essays and texts in Arabic, English and French, and he is the founder of HaRaKa Platform, Egypt's first platform dedicated to performance studies and choreography established 15 years ago, as well as the publication Cairography that translates and publishes essays on dance, performance, politics and choreography.

 

Elizabeth Kilili - Managing Trustee Creative Arts (Kenya)

 

Liz Kilili builds spaces where their imagination can run wild. Physical and Virtual galleries, graphic novels, abandoned buildings, a friend’s backyard (basically anywhere). In these spaces, Liz uses film, tech, and any other tool available to release the torrent of creative ideas that builds up in their mind. And when the noises stop, they also create a better world through her organization, Creatives Garage, that helps creatives live their dreams.

 

Avinash Kumar - Head Arts, West India Antariksha Studio & Quicksand (India)

 

Avinash is a media artist, researcher and entrepreneur based in India. He is a co-founder of Quicksand Design, a pioneering innovation consultancy operating since 2004; Antariksha Studio - a video game studio focused on cultural games from India; and UnBox Festival - an interdisciplinary arts platform that produces global festivals and residencies. He has also explored life as a visual artist in the electronic music scene - performing and creating media
arts installations across India and the globe since 2007. Avinash’s passion for cultural heritage and electronic arts led him to video gaming through his ongoing and acclaimed project Antariksha. Avinash lives in the beach town of Goa, India with his wife and dogs, with a vision to create a rural location for nextgen gaming in India. 

 

Joe Mejias - Musician and Set Designer (Philippines)

 

Joee's music combines field recordings, traditional and found instruments, electronics, and voice, forming songs that evoke inner memories, altered dream states, and fragments of real
or imaginary journey. Joee’s live performances are influenced by her theatre background, and vary in their use of projections, video, installations, and live performers. Joee has performed in venues around Southeast Asia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and has toured the Philippines extensively. She is also a faculty member in De La Salle-College of St. Benilde – School of Design and Arts where she is an alumna of the Production Design program.

 

Mr. Zhiou (Joe) Wang – Creator & Founder Blackbow (China)

 

Mr. Wang Zhiou has been focusing on creative multimedia design and visual communication design for more than a decade. Since founding Blackbow, a Chinese digital media institution in 2010, Executive Creative Director Mr. Wang Zhiou has led the creations of over 100 events on producing creative contents and building communications with the emphasis on innovative art and revolutionary technology. Blackbow, today, keeps moving forward with an innovative heart, its work cover culture, tourism, real estate, science and technology, etc. Currently, there are more than 80 talented individuals specialized in stage art, television and film production, interactive development, graphic design, space design, literary creation and advertising marketing. After nine years of accumulation, Mr. Wang Zhiou and the team of Blackbow have formed unique insights into the fusion of art, technology and science, and created many refreshing art events and cultural memories in in China and internationally. 

 

Wok the Rock (Woto Wibowo) - Co-Founder Yes No Wave (Indonesia)

 

Wok The Rock is an artist and curator that is active across the fields of contemporary art, design and music, Wok The Rock is a member of artist collective Ruang MES 56 in Yogyakarta, runs the music label Yes No Wave Music, curates a monthly experimental music concert series named Yes No Klub, and has initiated the Indonesia Netaudio Forum, among other. Wok has co-produced local bands such Senyawa, and art-music collective Punkasila and Dialita, an all women choir of political survivors. He has participated in the Biennale 2013, Tokyo Performance Art Meeting, Delfina Foundation artist residency, Casco Art Institute, 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art, and Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. He was the curator of the Biennale Jogja XIII in 2015, working in collaborating with Indonesian and Nigerian artists.