Voice Over #2
A performative Gathering
Biographies

Maayan Sheleff is an independent curator based in Tel Aviv and a PhD candidate at the Curatorial platform, the University of Reading (UK) and ZHdK (CH), exploring the agency of the voice in participatory, performative and political practices in relation to protest movements of the last decade. She is part of the curatorial team of ZUMU- Museum on the move for 2023. She curated projects at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Reading International, UK, the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo and Madre Museum, Naples, among others. She was previously the curator of the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv and co- curator of the first Tel Aviv- Jaffa Biennial (ARTLV 2009). Her recent publications include (Un)Commoning Voices and (Non)Communcal Bodies (OnCurating academic book series, 2021).

Agata Siniarska works in the field of extended choreography. She places her practice between how we think about the world and how we move in it. It is a place where somatics and politics intersect – a place where body perception meets social engagement – between somatic and environmental landscapes, between human and non-human bodies. Agata’s present research explores the idea of an Anthropocene museum, multi-species archives in  the time of war and extinction, as well as various human and non-human alliances.

Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer and theorist living in Berlin. His work focuses on questions of agency, community, and poetics, which results in a range of collaborative and extra-institutional initiatives, including: The Listening Biennial (2021-), Communities in Movement (2019-), The Living School (South London Gallery, 2014-16), Oficina de Autonomia (2017-), The Imaginary Republic (2014-19), Dirty Ear Forum (2013-23), Surface Tension (2003-2008), and Beyond Music Sound Festival (1998-2002). In 1995 he founded Errant Bodies Press, an independent publishing project supporting work in sound art and studies, performance and poetics, artistic research and contemporary political thought. His publications include: The Other Citizen (2020), Sonic Agency (2018), Lexicon of the Mouth (2014), Acoustic Territories (2010, 2019), and Background Noise (2006, 2015). His latest book, Acoustic Justice (2021), argues for an acoustic model by which to engage questions of social equality.

Effi & Amir are artists-filmmakers, working as a duo since 1999. They were born in Israel and have been living in Brussels since 2005. Studied fine arts at the Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem and The Sandberg Institut, Amsterdam and taught themselves, much later, to make films. Their work, spanning across disciplines such as video, performance and participatory strategies, is located – like life itself – in the blurry zone between documentary and fiction, and explores construction mechanisms – of identity, of history and of the artwork.

In parallel to their practice Effi & Amir teach in a variety of frameworks and are mentors at the international programme SIC – SoundImageCulture. Effi & Amir are laureates of the 2021 “Prix de parcours” for audiovisual documentary work, awarded by SCAM, Belgium. Their work has recently received the Moving Image Art Prize at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (2022). Their latest film, By The Throat, was awarded several prizes. 

Lau is a choreographer and performer born in Oulu, Finland. They studied in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Helsinki) and Royal School of Performing Arts (Madrid) between 2008-2013. Since 2016 they are based in Vienna. Lau is interested in interdisciplinary overlaps, dedicated awkwardness, epic and a presence of “emotional body” in the act of dancing and performing.

Lau has worked e.g. with Ju Aichinger (AT), Marta Navaridas (ES/AT), Michael Turinsky (AT), Veza Fernández (ES/AT), Karin Pauer & Aldo Giannotti (AT), Berivan Sayici (AT), Franzis Kabisch (DE/AT), Magdalena Fischer (AT), Alison Kopit (US), Be Hope Heintzman (CA), Kaaos Company (FI) and Reality Research Centre (FI). In 2018 Lau received the Austrian Federal Chancellor’s Office’s START scholarship for music and performing arts as well as the danceWEB Scholarship at ImPulsTanz Festival. Recent works are Trouble (2019) at Rakete Festival in Tanzquartier Wien, NYXXX (2020) at imagetanz with brut Wien, kneading to the 3rd millennia (2021) at brut Wien in the framework of Freischwimmen Network. Lau has published without record label two internet EP’s under LAUX (Schoßhund): Superlike (2019) and HUFKLANG (2020).

Mădălina Dan, choreographer and performer, studied choreography and play-writing at the National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest. She attended the SoDA programme (Solo/Dance/Authorship) at HZT- Berlin. Her works have been shown at Bozar- Bruxelles, Springdance Festival Utrecht, Balkan Dance Platform – Novi Sad, eXplore Dance Festival – Bucharest, Temps d’Images – Cluj, SouthBank Center & Chisenhale Dance Space – London, Fabrik Potsdam, Hebbel am Uffer – Berlin, TanzFabrik-Berlin, Tanzquartier Wien, Dance Theater Workshop – New York, Firkin Crane-Cork, Alta Theater – Prague, Art Stations Foundation – Poznan, Sophien Saale – Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, Impulse Festival, Mulheim, Lyon Dance Biennale, Schauschpiel Leipzig, Hellerau – Dresden, Kaaistudios Bruxelles etc. 

Netta Weiser (b. 1991, Israel) works at the intersection of choreography, experimental radio and discursive practice. She currently lives and works in Berlin. Her works have been presented internationally in performing art venues, festivals and radio contexts, such as the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Tanzquartier in Vienna, Villa Medici in Rome, The Israeli Centre for Digital Art, WDR, and reboot.fm. In 2020 she received the NRW Dance Research residency for international artists, and in 2021 was a fellow at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music at the Akademie der Künste. Moreover, Weiser is a docent at the Berlin University of the Arts, and at the Klangzeitort Institute for New Music Berlin. 

Public Movement (founded 2006, Tel-Aviv) is a performative research body that investigates and stages political actions in public spaces. It studies and creates public choreographies, forms of social order, overt and covert rituals. The group has performed in renowned art institutions worldwide including Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hebbel Am Ufer Theater, Berlin; Asian Art Biennial, Taipei; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Melbourne; and steirischer herbst Festival, Graz. The group has won several awards including the Essential Art Prize (2021) and Rosenblum Prize for Performance Art (2017).
Public Movement was co-founded by Omer Krieger and Dana Yahalomi, the latter is the group director since 2011.

Slim Soledad multi-artist, born Guarulhos – São Paulo/BR, currently living in Berlin. Her body moves through the different sounds inter-passing rhythms like Baile Funk, Vogue and contemporary dances. These connections develop nuances in her body’s creative process as a performer and in her musical production. Slim is Co-founder of the queer collective Chernobyl that caters to a BPOC and LGBTQIA+ audience in Brazil.

“I think that since I was very young I have a relationship with art, I mean with music and dance mainly. I believe they were things that marked my childhood and who I am today, I remember my parents always listened to music and we always went once a month to my uncles house where they had parties and sometimes there was a “dance championship” between the adults and everyone had a lot of fun.”

Sunny Pfalzer is a performance artist, a Surfer Boy, a Go-Go-Girl and a Slug. They love to cuddle on the street. Whether they perform on stage, sew textile sculptures, hold a camera, or choreograph for public spaces, their approach is always bodily and felt. Through protest methodologies, poetry and pop culture, Sunny depicts how body language can construct statements. Facilitating workshops and collaborating is an integral part of Sunny’s practice, as these formats provide time and space to share knowledge, lived experience, time to reflect and unlearn together.

Sunny Pfalzer studied performative art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Their most recent presentations include Kunsthalle Vienna; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Galerie Wedding – Room for contemporary Art, Berlin; Radialsystem, Berlin; Shedhalle, Zurich; Les Urbaines, Lausanne; Wiener Festwochen; ATAR Museum, Tel Aviv-Yafo; GAM, Santiago de Chile.