Born in Taipei in 1971, Lin Chiwei is a transdisciplinary artist who received academic training in French literature, cultural anthropology and media art. Since the early 1990s, Lin has been involved in the Taiwanese counter-cultural scene. He was a founding member of noise band Z.S.L.O. and responsible for the programming of various alternative art festivals. At the same time, Lin explored the realms of religious music and art, notably temple sculpture and Taoist rituals, through intense research and field studies. These experiences, combined with his practice in noise performance and electronic music composition, developed into critical positions toward contemporary art practices. Since 2004, Lin has worked on the Tape Music and IDCM (Interhuman Dynamic Coordinated Models) series of works – synchronous protocols which allow individual autonomy in the forming of collective intelligence that leads to complex sound works. In his 2012 book Beyond Sound Art – The Avant Garde, Sound Machine and the Modernity of Hearing, Lin denies the term ‘Sound Art,’ and provides a holistic view blurring the boundary between human culture and technology. Lin’s art works were shown in various biennales and museums including Tate Modern, Pompidou Center, PSA Shanghai along with other non-art sites including local community projects, private residences, public schools, factories, churches, temples, bars and live venues in different countries around the world. Lin Chiwei lives and works in Shanghai, Taipei, and Paris.
Maite de Orbe is a Spanish, London-based artist working with photography, performance and moving image. Their practice is focused on the complexity of identity making, touching on otherness and belonging. Working collaboratively with dissident communities, de Orbe’s practice uses a documentary visual language at first that then lures into fantasy and world making to tell stories of real life through emotional textures, portraits and landscapes. As they examine rituals of contemporary culture, their work is equally raw and soft, deeply connected and fascinated with blending high vs low culture, intimacy and the sublime. In 2024, De Orbe started creating MOMOSTAR, an opaque character exploring violence, tenderness, gender, belief systems, mythology and contemporary symbols, it is a surreal exercise to really see oneself.
Damsel Elysium (they/them) is the solo project of UK-based multidisciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Djenaba Davis-Eyo. Working across sound, video and performance, their intuitive and improvisational practice explores the body, space, object and the metaphysical, drawing on somatic techniques, ancestral knowledge and the subconscious. Their work moves between experimental sound, contemporary classical, electronics and performance, often approaching performance as ritual and the stage as altar. Their work has appeared at Tate Modern, Southbank Centre, the V&A and Fondation Beyeler.
Martin Sigler is a Berlin-based writer specialising in culture, philosophy, and identity. His work focuses on the everyday, offering pragmatic approaches to how Black individuals can emancipate themselves today. After completing a Master's degree in Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins, he published I Am the Performative Object, a book exploring the articulation between performative objects and the construction of Black identity.
Born in Lubumbashi, Cedrik Fermont is a Berlin-based Belgian-Congolese composer, musician, mastering engineer, author, radio host, curator and independent researcher. Since 1989, he has worked across the fields of noise, electronic and electroacoustic music, sound art and free improvisation. He runs the label and platform Syrphe, whose main focus is on sound art, electronic music, free improvisation and electroacoustic music from Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as his personal projects. Cedrik works as a solo artist and in numerous collaborative projects and bands across several continents. His tours and ongoing research have led him to perform and give talks in 72 countries across Eurasia, Africa and the Americas. He also composes music for sound installations, theatre and choreography. Cedrik has written several essays, as well as the book Not Your World Music: Noise Music in South-East Asia, co-written with Dimitri della Faille. The book was awarded the 2017 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in the Digital Musics & Sound Art category. In 2024, he was awarded the Kunstpreis Berlin – Jubiläumsstiftung 1848/1948 in Berlin.
