a live radio drama musical and culinary tasting performance

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For the fourth event in the series "i can't hear you" we presented a performance by Ariel Orah and Bilawa Respati from Soydivision Kollektiv. The newly developed piece looks at their experiences of working in a collective within the the culinary and cultural spheres by drawing on references from Indonesian history and tradition amongst others.

In “DIANTARA”, Soydivision brought the story of Tama, who tries to find redemption to his crumbling relationship with the people surrounding him through making a Tumpeng. This cone-shaped rice culinary installation is often used in a blessing ritual/ceremony in Indonesia. With a format of a live radio drama musical, live music scoring accompanies the dialogues of the characters. During the performance, a Tumpeng was prepared for the participants to taste at the end of the performance.

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Ariel Orah is a Berlin-based Indonesian performing artist who explores themes of identity, empathy, and social climate justice. He holds a Master of Arts degree from Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin with a focus on sustainability management and a degree in Design Thinking (Advanced Track) from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. He also received a scholarship for his participation in MusicMakers Hacklab 2020, a renowned sound art performance program hosted by CTM Festival Berlin.
He works in a variety of media, ranging from acoustic and other multi-sensory performances, to physical and interactive installations, to moving and/or still images. Selected works include a performative commissioned installation for the Tanz im August Berlin festival (2016), the theater music composition for the play "GÖTZENDÄMMERUNG. POST-FUCK-TISCHE ERGÜSSE ZUM ZEITGESCHEHEN" for the Zimmertheater Tübingen (2019), a performance at "Mosaique - Internationales Musikfestival Lüneburg 2019", the performative participation at "Sonic Seasoning" - a culinary and sound-artistic event of TOP e.V. (part of the "Vorspiel" of Transmediale and CTM 2020), as well as the solo albums "Scarcity" (2017) and "WIM" (2018) under the artist name ravenative.
www.ravenative.com

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Bilawa Respati plays classical guitar and Javanese gamelan. He plays both classical and contemporary works for the gamelan with various Javanese gamelan ensembles, including Arum Sih (Übersee-Museum, Bremen) and Sekar Kenanga (Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg). Starting in 2018, he collaborates with Ariel William Orah on a guitar and synthesizer duet under the name OKNUM.
A selection of his recent projects includes music and performances for the music theater “nur hin” with the Soydivision Ensemble (ACUD Theater & Studio dB, Berlin, 2020), the performance of “Hanya Satu Kata”---10 short pieces for guitar and recitation based on Widji Thukul's poetry with the late Dr. Peter Sternagel (House of Indonesian Cultures, Berlin, 2019), the shadow puppet show "Kidung Panji Biyung Bibi" with the group Seni Wayang Jantur from Solo (Pumpwerk, Berlin, 2018), and the performance of modern music for Javanese gamelan "Main Bersama-sama" with Arum Sih as part of the International Gamelan Festival (Gasteig, Munich, 2018).