(un)building listenings
Nicolás JaarMay 7 - June 27, 2021
“(un)building listenings” by Nicolás Jaar is an introductory study group on how to use audio editing software to (un)build stories. Workshop attendants will learn the basics of the software 'ableton live 11', a free copy of which will be given to each participant.
Nicolás Jaar was born in New York and grew up in Santiago de Chile, the birthplace of his parents. Since 2008, he has released music under various guises spanning shades of pop, ambient, noise, and club music. He has also worked on soundtracks for Jacques Audiard, Pablo Larrain, and most recently Dea Kulumbegashvili. He has performed at festivals such as Le Guess Who (2019), Unsound (2019 + 2020), Rewire (2019), Primavera (2014), Mutek (2012, 2014), Sonar (2010, 2012, 2017), and shown comissioned pieces/performances at Het Nieuwe Instituut (2020), Sharja Architecture Triennale (2019), Romaeuropa (2019), het Hem (2019), Oude Kerk (2018), and Moma Ps1 (2012).
In 2019, Jaar assembled a group of 12 researchers (Shock Forest Group) in order to explore the history and future of a military complex-turned art institution in the Netherlands. The resulting exhibition, entitled "No Camouflage' (het Hem, 2019) uncovered the myriad layers of accumulated colonial, ecological and institutional violence that interlink on the site through archival media findings, data gathering, performances and sound installations.
Jaar is part of the team at Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, a grass-roots independent artist–run initiative founded in 2014 located in Bethlehem, Palestine. Jaar transformed Dar Jacir’s food shack into a sound studio where he has held sound workshops with kids from Aida and Dheisheh refugee camps. These sound workshops introduced the children to the practice of electronic music creation, experimenting with instruments and recording techniques available in the new studio. A residency program for international artists has been curated by Jaar since 2019, with Sebastián Jatz Rawicz (Chile) and Rolando Hernández (Mexico) as guests so far. Jaar has also held workshops at RCA Architecture Program (2021), Werkplaats Typografie, NL (2019, alongside research group SFG), 4x4 festival (Chiapas), Sonar Barcelona (2012) and Berklee College of Music, US (2015).
From 2017-2019, Jaar worked as producer / writer on FKA Twigs on her lauded album 'Magdalene'. He has recently collaborated with artist Somnath Bhatt (2018-2020), artist/designer/coder Abeera Kamran (2020-2021), composer Patrick Higgins (2019-Ongoing), artist Lydia Ourahmane (2018), installation artist Vincent De Belleval (2016-Ongoing), saxophone player Mette Henriette (2014-Ongoing) and fado singer Carminho (2011) among others. As a producer, he's been comissioned remixes by Brian Eno (2013), Cat Power (2012), Florence and The Machine (2015) and more. His song "Killing Time" was sampled on "Call Out My Name", a 2018 song by The Weeknd. He is also a current member of performance ensemble ¡miércoles! alongside dancer and choreographer Stéphanie Janaina, and part of the band DARKSIDE alongside multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington.
Since 2013, he has curated the Other People music label (www.other-people.net), releasing music by Lydia Lunch, John Wall, Pierre Bastien, Terepa collective (Kouhei Matsunaga, Laurel Halo, Lucrecia Dalt, Rashad Becker, Charlotte Collin, Grégoire Simon, Julia Holter), William Basinski, Okokon, VTGNIKE, High Water, Lucrecia Dalt, Dave Harrington Group, Sary Moussa, Patrick Higgins and more. Other People has also featured the visual & audio work of artists Africanus Okokon, Jena Myung, Maziyar Pahlevan and Jaar. In 2017, The Network (www.other-people.network) a website of 111 fictional radio stations created by Jaar became a book, published by Printed Matter. In 2020, Other People began donating all of its profit revenue in forms of grants to artists, collectives and organizations around the world.
Supported by Nicolás Jaar and Ableton Live.
