Plurifonica Festival - Midsummer Alumni Gathering

SATURDAY 21 JUNE 2025
3PM-00AM
VILLA ROMANA
via Senese 68
50124 Firenze

performances by: Mariechen Danz, Dani Gal, Dudu Kouate+Simon Sieger, Christian Naujoks, Radio Papesse, Amelia Umuhire, Viron Erol Vert, ooh sounds + Nub Project Space, a.o.

with the participation of: Radio Papesse, Christian Naujoks, Viron Erol Vert, Mariechen Danz, Amelia Umuhire, Dani Gal, Dudu Kouate + Simon Sieger, Lucia Kagramanyan

and with the presence of more alumni and fellows of Villa Romana, amongst which: Elia Nurvista, Raul Walch, Ruben D’Hers, Jeewi Lee, Sergio Zevallos, Samuel Baah Kortey,  Shannon Bool.

3pm-6pm: Radio Papesse and Villa Romana present excerpts from A Corale for the 120 years of Villa Romana, produced in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk and Ifa Galerie Berlin. A selection of sound contributions and sonic memories from the Alumni of Villa Romana is composed and played by Radio Papesse under the jasmine gazebo in the garden of the Villa. A tapestry of voices weaving together the Corale which will be presented and launched next 13 September 2025 at Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin.

‍6pm: Epona, Chaveli Sifre’s performance livestreamed from Kunsthalle Osnabrück6:15pm: Christian Naujoks‍7pm:Club Telestrion, Ancestral Sounds: 1-9 (2023)  Listening Session by Viron Erol Vert Exploring the reciprocal relationships between inner spiritual spaces on the one hand and spaces constructed by societies on the other. In ancient places of worship, he finds references to mankinds early longings for transcendence and a supersensory connection to gods and ancestors, which retains its relevance today. Vert sees the parallels to club culture in the temporary immersion in another world where one can let go, lose oneself and open up to multiple identities and meanings of life.

8pm: Mariechen Danz performance

8:30pm: Amelia Umuhire tells the story of Innocent Seminega – her father – as a young student, teacher, husband and parent up until his death at the hands of the Hutu extremists in Rwanda. Tracing her family history as she addresses him, she weaves together threads from his love of linguistics, his romance with her mother, parenthood, and life lived amidst violent conflict – until unfurling her own story of her childhood and movement between countries – critiquing the white gaze which might try and frame her family’s story.
Innocent is an intimate portrait that resists the narrative canon that the West imposes on recent Rwandan history.

9:15pm: The Swamp In June, Dani Gal uses his evolving system for putting different sound sources – such as live radio, field recordings (including samples from the Historical Records collection) and acoustic instruments outfitted with specially made motors – in dialogue. For example, by switching stations on a radio receiver, shifts in the sound level affect the movement of the motor that by result plays a string instrument. In relation to one another the sources, which the player has only partial control over, create an indeterminate musical composition.


10pm: Dudù Kouate + Simon Sieger

11pm: Dj set by Lucia Kagramanyan

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