Museum Abteiberg is pleased to announce the introduction of the second new commission for KUNSTHALLE FOR MUSIC in Mönchengladbach. The Belgian-Congolese artist and DJ Melika Ngombe Kolongo was invited by Ari Benjamin Meyers to create this new commission. From May 17 to 19 Melika Ngombe Kolongo will be at Museum Abteiberg to publicly rehearse and perform her new composition the snake in the sun… together with the ensemble on site. The work will then be included in the exhibition score of Act II.
Melika Ngombe Kolongo (b. 1988 in Kinhasa, lives in London and Berlin) works at the intersection of electronic music, production, and visual art. She uses performance and sound to address visible and invisible or conscious and unconscious structures of social power relations. Under her pseudonym Nkisi, she produces intense, powerful sonics influenced by ancient Congolese rhythm and noise, planetary electromagnetism, and experimental improvisation. She is a founding member of NON Records, an independent record label and collective dedicated to supporting artists of the African diaspora and of African descent. She is also co-founder of Radical Agency Axis Arkestra, which explores alternative forms of knowledge production. She recently launched both her label INITIATION and research platform The Secret Institute – exploring the secrets and mysteries of vibrational rhythm, invisible gestural sonics, noise tantra, strategies of trance and ritual as a socio-political tool. Nkisi has performed at countless international festivals including Semibreve, Terraforma, Unsound, New York’s Dweller Festival, and Montreal’s MUTEK. She has also worked together with art institutions such as Palais de Tokyo, Callie’s Berlin, and Wysing Arts Centre.
the snake in the sun…
sounding symbols are oscillating as
sonic libations,
the secret is in the music,
the music is the secret,
ritualized gestures are guiding ecstasy…
as chantresses signal with the voice in
imitation,
we
are
free…
Fig.: Melika Ngombe Kolongo, the snake in the sun…, 2024