"Listen! Can you hear it speak in murmurs" ?
Being nomadic, this year Artist's Menu happened in Croatia in a coastal city of Pula where, for a brief moment, time stood still. Quietness took over, Sun was warm and wind carried through the air the scent of coniferous forest. We came to listen.
As usual we base our collaboration on conversation, probing questions and exchange. This year in particular we opened a space for construction, deconstruction and LISTENING. After our exchange in Brazil, Fred and I meet again exploring other terrains, listening to soundscapes of the sea that divide and connect. We endeavor into the nonaligned territories, abandoned spaces and dwell upon the sounds coming from distance. We listen to far away voices
and let them find solace with our shared spaces.
Who is Fredone Fone?
Fredone Fone grew up on the outskirts of the Sera Dourada settlement (Espiritu Santo state). He comes from a working-class neighborhood where the experience of survival, helping his father as a builder and painter, and his mother sweeping classrooms, baking cakes, and making snacks, shaped his practice and approach to art.
Fredone is a visual artist, MC, skater, beatmaker who, through his works, speaks about the dream of owning a house, about self-construction, and about hip-hop as subversive tactics of existence, occupation, and survival. He reflects on invisibility as a strategy, creates and assembles elements for the deconstruction of systems and symptoms caused by urban life.
In his 20 years of practice, he received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation - New York/NI, USA 2020/21. He has participated in numerous festivals and exhibited in museums and galleries in Brazil but also beyond, from Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay, Spain, Belgium, Italy to Bosnia and Serbia.
This time he will focus on his music. Together we will record, listen and converse with all that is around. From the noise we will make rhythm.
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The residency was partly supported by Municipality of Vitoria that provided Fred his travel grant. But as the core of the project is navigating funds, "free" labour, value of exchange and most of all figuring out resources needed to produce, work and create and making it happen with as less institutional bureaucracy we had to get creative.
This residency would not be possible without Ljiljana Pasuljević Kandić who welcomed us with open arms and provided safe space to explore. She sheltered us provided food and covered local travel. As per usual the rest we shared and exchanged covering each other as we could, working on "other jobs that put food on the table" to be able to use our time to learn, deconstruct the known and construct anew. Create in order to keep it all up.