ORIENT/ATION

curated by Seba Kayan

ORIENT/ATION is a synonym for coordination, adaptation, sense of direction, and some kind of assimilation. On 26.10 2023 – the Austrian National Day we are longing for a historical, cultural, political, musical and foremost personal look into a new form of a (self) ORIENT/ATION.

19:00 Workshop by Bita Bell

21:00 Concert

with Shari Hosseini, Kasho Chualan, Seba Kayan & Bita Bell

23:00 – 01:00 DJ Set by t: KAESO

19:00 Workshop: “How the persian Carpet moves you” – by Bita Bell

Description: In this open level dance workshop we take a historical, cultural, political, and artistic look into the persian carpet to explore, improvise, and create home-made movements. The workshop is in four main sections: the garden’, ‘the home’, ‘the dome’ , ‘the ceremony’. The workshop is open to everyone interested in dance improvisation, regardless of background.

Max 15 participants

ANMELDUNGEN an contact@sebakayan.com

21:00 Concert with, Shari Hosseini, Kasho Chualan, Seba Kayan & Bita Bell.

This freeform improvised jam sessions comprise of both collaborative and solo performances, with no set times decided in advance, allowing the natural flow to lead the way.

It is an experience unhindered from any formal structure, allowing both the performers and audience to explore the boundaries of improvisation, adaptation in all of its raw beauty. Seba Kayan curates a collective of acclaimed BiPoc artists who express themselves and interact at a crossroad between their own identity and cultural fragments thus make themselves heard anew in the plural society(s).

Kasho Chualan is a Kurdish-Canadian pianist, composer and sound artist currently based in Vienna. She grew up classically trained as a pianist and studied Piano Performance and Pedagogy in various Conservatories and at the Western University of Canada. She is now studying Electric Acoustic and Experimental Music Composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Kasho has been in many versatile musical and art projects from classical, psychedelic, punk, performative art and experimental.

She is currently performing with musical collective Ausländer, and other collaborative projects. She is now mostly composing and working on a solo record.

She has been referred to as an antichrist of classical music, breaking borders of classical music by manipulating it with an experimental, dreamlike, narrative and textural approach.

Most of her compositions are created from collecting raw sounds and mixing it with vocals, synthesizers, other instruments and electronics.

She has performed in festivals like Nuit Blanche (Toronto, 2016), Wien Woche (Vienna, 2021), Ispod Bine Sound Festival (Croatia, 2021), Kultur Summer (Vienna, 2022), as well as venues like, Kunsthalle Wien, Radio Kultur Haus, and exhibited at Ars Electronica.

https://kasho.bandcamp.com/

Shari is a songwriter/instrumentalist based in Vienna. After a career in teaching and making

music in their home city Tehran, they moved to Vienna in 2013 in the hopes of experimenting,

discovering, and finding themselves in their world of music with freedom of expression.

Currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Shari sees music

as a medium, through which they express themselves; An honest reflection of what they go

through in life, a healing process, and not necessarily a craft.

Together with YIELU, they released JUNGLE JADE’s self-titled debut record in 2021 and are

currently working on the duo’s new material.

BITA BELL is a dance artist and composer with a BA in music composition and a MFA in dance. Born in Iran and lived in the U.S. since 17, she moved from New York City to Vienna in 2020. She mainly works with improvisation in both dance and music while exposing, questioning, and subverting social-political matters that disrupt the joy in daily life. She is currently part of Die Labile Botschaft, Round Up Sound UP music collective, and the 5th cohort of the THIRD Research program at DAS graduate school in Amsterdam University of Arts.

https://bitabell.com/

SEBA KAYAN

Initiator and curator of ORIENT-ATION.

SEBA KAYAN is a viennese DJ and artist. Her work oscillates between DJing, performances, exhibitions and curating. Her music has a forensic, political and metaphorical approach. By digging into various music archives she collects lost pieces. Her polyrhythmic sets integrate a wide array of musical genres, including Orientalfuturistic electro, techno and Acid. In between, she burns the unmistakable sound of the so called “Oriental“ Music into ironclad techno frameworks. A binary vision of an occidental vs. oriental world is not aimed to be created, but both cultures are tried to be embodied and become interwoven. By seeking the past in archives, an imagination of tomorrow is getting shaped into a hybrid music.

23:00 – 01:00 DJ Set t: KAESO