| Maker | Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman |
| Duration | 70 min |
A deep listening experience into Instrumental African music, vocal experiments, Afrique Concrète
At 113 years old Kanyoni Ladislas, the grandfather of composer and audiovisual artist Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, remains a living legend. During his long life as a traditional doctor and hunter, he witnessed his homeland of Rwanda transform through colonization, independence struggles, genocides and post-war conflicts into the fragile country it is today. With his impressive life story, he inspired granddaughter Aurélie to make UMVA!, which simply means: listen.
In this intimate and performative installation, Aurélie further breaks down the boundaries between radio art and storytelling. Through headphones, the audience becomes immersed in a hybrid sound world. Five performers play Lierman's musical, acoustic and choreographic scores and challenge you to listen very carefully. Expect instrumental African music, dance, vocal experiments, live foley art, Afrique Concrète and electronics. With UMVA! family stories, traditions and rituals, plus intergenerational, intercultural differences and similarities come to light.
Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman (Karago, Rwanda) studied audiovisual art and jazz singing in Brussels and Leuven. She continued her education with a master's degree in composition and a minor in voice at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. For years, Aurélie was a radio producer and journalist for Flemish radio. She has been based in Rotterdam since January 2020.
Fascinated by the narrative power of abstract sound and music, Lierman applies dramatic and documentary elements to musical compositions (and vice versa). As a result Lierman's oeuvre is multidisciplinary, moving between radio art, installation art, performance art, voice art and composition.
Her extensive collection of unique field recordings – and soundscapes from rural and urban contemporary East Africa – functions as a common thread in her work. She transforms these collected sounds and models them into something she coins as Afrique Concrète, a hybrid form of Afro-European music theater. With UMVA! she attempts to further deepen and refine this vocation.
| Concept & composition | Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman |
| Direction | Keren Levi |
| Musical dramaturgy | Yannis Kyriakides |
| Text | Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman geïnspireerd op The Glorious Cow van Scholastique Mukasonga (ed. Gallimard) |
| Choreography | Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, Kaito Winse, Maya Felixbrodt, Soa Ratsifandrihana |
| Performers | Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman, Gaetan La Mela, Kaito Winse, Maya Felixbrodt, Raphaele Danksagmüller, Soa Ratsifandrihana |
| Scenography | Jeroen Smith |
| Lighting design | Jeroen Smith, Niels Kingma |
| Set design | Wim Becker |
| Production and audio technics | Maurits Thiel, Stefan Bos |
| Audiotechnical advice | Maurits Thiel, Wouter Snoei |
| Creative producer | Dominique Slegers, Jimmy-Pierre de Graaf |
| Co-producers | Concertgebouw Brugge, HermesEnsemble, Het Laatste Bedrijf, Silbersee |
| Thanks to | Boirs Bischoff, Denis Wouter, Gallop Taxshelter, Gemeente Rotterdam, Gil Gomes Leal, Inne Goris, Katía Truijen, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond |
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