PRACTICABLE 8_”Apotome”, solo live performance by Khyam Allami

Next Wednesday May 29th at 7pm, Khyam Allami will present in Hangar a new electronic maqāmic work utilizing Apotome; a free browser-based software he created in collaboration with Counterpoint Studio. Apotome is the catch-all title for a transcultural music project highlighting the cultural asymmetries, biases and non-neutrality inherent in modern sonic technologies, alongside their interconnected web of musical, educational, cultural, social and political ramifications. The performance is organized within the framework of the exhibition “The Production of Otherness: an Archaeology of Standards” (working title) curated by Maite Borjabad for the FAD (Foment de les Arts i del Disseny) / D-Hub, which proposes to decipher through artistic, creative and design practices the intricacies in the production of systems, norms, beliefs or aesthetic imaginaries and their implication in the manufacturing of otherness.

Khyam Allami is an Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, researcher, and founder of Nawa Recordings. His artistic research and practice explore experimental composition and improvisation based on and inspired by the fundamentals of Arabic music and culture. Recent works include A Relational Music (rehearsal), multichannel sound installation celebrating the legacy of Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid for the Contemporary Art Centre, Cincinnati (US); Requiem for the 21st Century, an immersive Oud-based installation for Opera North (UK); Ma-a aba ud mena gin Ma-a di-di-in, a string quartet for JACK quartet (US); and Apotome, a collaborative project with Counterpoint Studio which was awarded the inaugural Isao Tomita Special Prize at Ars Electronica (AT). Allami holds a BA and Masters in Ethnomusicology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK), and a PhD in experimental Arabic music composition from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University (UK).

Maite Borjabad is an independent curator, architect and researcher. Her work revolves around various forms of critical spatial practices that span visual art, performance and architecture. Having worked for the past eight years as a curator at major cultural institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, she describes her curatorial practice as an “institutional infiltration” that takes place at the intersection of these disciplines, as well as museum studies and institutional critique. Her practice has developed through working with collections leading acquisition strategies, as well as exhibitions including among others: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rhame: If only this mountain between us could be ground to dust (Art Institute of Chicago, 2021); My Building, Your Design: Seven Portraits by David Hartt (Art Institute of Chicago, 2019) or the performance commissioned to Cecilia Bengolea, Danza de las Materialidades Mutantes (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2022). Her most recent projects include the exhibition and year-long programming Clima Fitness: Rituals of Adaptability and Mutations and Planetary Mutualisms (Matadero Madrid, 2023–2024) and the exhibition A Permanent Nostalgia for Departure (Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 2023– 2024).

Practical Information:

Date: Wednesday 29th
Time: 7pm
Venue: Sala Ricson, Hangar
Free admission

Organized in collaboration with FAD (Foment de les Arts i del Disseny).

Image: Camille Blake -21 LEAD