2022 Movement Research ACROSS

Recap of an Alien Garden

Performance by Justin F. Kennedy

Friday, 3 June 2022, 8.00 – 8.45 PM
Galerie Wedding - Space for Contemporary Art

Recap of an Alien Garden is a sci-fi opera conceived and choreographed by community dance and vocal artist, Justin F. Kennedy. Recap posits the Alien Garden at the public square in Berlin as a site for emancipation. The performance uses the history of Ska music to address the topics of AlienNation and displacement. The infectious Ska basslines, overlaid with alienating lyrics and riffs invite into an “effervescent skank”. The piece is performed by Kennedy, ILYICH and special guest The Darvish.

Justin F. Kennedy

Justin F. Kennedy is a Berlin-based dance and vocal artist, teacher, and DJ, raised in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Kennedy’s research evolves from a durational dance and singing practice, and its further translatability into workshops, science fiction operas, installations, and film. Notable projects include: A(un) Necessary World, Lifes, Hammer Museum, LA (2022), Vorglühen, OUT NOW, Uferhallen, Berlin (2021); UNFURL the jukebox musical: a shareable cypher, Montag Modus, Radialsystem, Berlin (2021); UNFURL: a lucid science fiction, 11th Berlin Biennale, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); and Some Murder Theatre in Here, Volksbühne Grüner Salon, Berlin (2020). They have performed intimately with and for Shannon Funchess, Dani Brown, Emma Howes, Ligia Lewis, Louis Vuitton, Tino Sehgal, Adam Linder, Liz Kinoshita, Jeremy Shaw, Josh Johnson, BODYSNATCH, Faustin Linyekula, Jeremy Wade, Peaches, Wu Tsang, and others.

ILYICH

ILYICH is a space traveler of an ambiguous origin, reincarnated in Kherson, Ukraine.
Frequently manoeuvring the worlds of music and art ILYICH's vision is to construct conditions for unitive experience. ILYICH’s elusive origin and fluid identity encourage imaginative exploration and challenge contemporary forms of separation and marginalisation processes on Earth. Committed to developing artistic responses in the form of musical concerts, interactive sound objects, and learning sites, the project is motivated to momentarily disrupt identitarian, fascistic, and hyper-individualised constructions of the self that separate us.
Oscillating between popular electronic music, with soul and jazz, and discursive sonic improvisation, ILYICH can be often found at the core of an intimate listening session, a sonic ritual, gallery or museum gathering, or on a larger club and festival stage around the world. With surprise appearances at the Lot Radio, I.S.C.P. and the Nervous Records in New York, Roskilde Festival, BBC 6 Music, SAVVY Contemporary, House of the World Cultures and Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin or Bergen Kunsthall, Norway among others ILYICH’s performances invite you to board an outer-space vessel navigating through the unified field of music.