Mikhail Karikis’s work emerges from his long-standing investigation of the human voice as a sculptural material and a conceptual compass, which he employs to explore notions of community and politics of work, impossibility and address of difference. Karikis's interdisciplinary approach embraces visual art, performance and sound, often generating collaborative projects which engage other art practitioners or specific communities positioned outside the mainstream. His work ranges from the poetic to the theatrical, and activates the potential for ruptures both in perception and ethical concerns.
Karikis's work has been shown at the Danish Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, Manifesta 9, Tate Gallery, Barbican and elsewhere. His sound work has been published world-wide with Bjork, DJ Spooky and Sub Rosa. Below is a brief list of some of Karikis's projects. For more information, please contact the artist's studio here.
En Dialogo con el Mar | Museo de la Ciudad de Cuernavaca, Mexico, 12 April - 12 May 2013
Curated by Artport, this exhibition creates a conversation between original material from the archives of the pioneering explorer and marine conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau and 16 international contemporary artists who reflect on the mysteries and fragility of underwater life through video, drawing, performance, painting and music.
The Voice | Wellcome Collection, 1 Mar 2013, 7pm-11pm, 183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE, UK
This event explores the voice through art, performances and science. Mikhail Karikis presents Vox Anatomica, a new site-specific work for voices which maps the body through sound. Devised by the artist with the Wellcome Trust staff choir, Vox Anatomica explores how a range of vocal frequencies resonate across the body.
Videonale 14 | Kunstmuseum Bonn, 15 Jan - 17 Apr 2013, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2, 53113 Bonn, D
Melodies en sous-sol | Maison Populaire, 15 Jan - 30 Mar 2013, 9 Bis Rue Dombasle, 93100 Montreuil, FR
4 Days | Arnolfini, 17Jan - Sun 20 Jan, 2013, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA, UK
Roots: Journeying Home | Aldeburgh Music, 1 Feb - 3 Feb, 2013, Snape Maltings, Suffolk IP17 1SP, UK
The Breath Sound of SeaWomen | ArteEast Quarterly, Jan 2013 (online)
Solo Show: SeaWomen by Mikhail Karikis at Arnolfini, p/v 11th Jan 2013, show open until 20 Jan 2013. 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA, UK, T: +44 (0)117 9172300/01
view documentation of the installation
4º Bienal Internacional de Performance, Santiago, Chile, 14th-24th November, 2012
Mikhail Karikis presents work in the 4th International Biennial of Performance DEFORMES 2012 (14 to 24 November). The Biennial will feature a working methodology in person, in situ, and in absence, through broadcasts Live Streaming, giving rise to a field of work that will expand the exchange horizons and critical reflection on the circuit of national and international performance art.
The Voice and the Lens, IKON Gallery, 8th-11th November 2012
A festival and exhibition exploring the treasures of the human voice, conjured up for our eyes through film and performance. Artists include Bruce McLean, Christian Marclay, Yoko Ono, David Toop, Mikhail Karikis, Anri Sala, Ed Atkins, Jennifer Walshe, Jayne Parker, Imogen Stidworthy, Sonia Boyce, David Bickerstaff, Aura Satz, Amy Cunningham, Sam Belinfante, Adam de la Cour, Elaine Mitchener, Loré Lixenberg, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design and Birmingham Conservatoire, Sam Taylor-Wood, Kathryn Faulkner, Yiannis Katsaris, Samuel Beckett, Helen Petts, Richard Whitby, Shirin Neshat, Katarzyna Kozyra, Rebecca Birch, Sepideh Saii, Stella Capes, David Blandy, Mel Brimfield, Kota Ezawa, Dara Friedman, Reshaad Newsome, Martha Rosler, Terry Smith, Don Boyd, Robert Ashley, Richard Thomas, Ravi Deepres and Andy Ingamells. The Voice and the Lens is curated by Sam Belinfante and Third Ear.
Becoming Voice, South London Gallery, 26th & 27th Oct 2012, 7pm
A two-day programme of films and live performances explores artistic approaches to the way in which technological and socio-political pressures shift our means and modes of communication. Films by historical and contemporary artists are on show, including works by Hollis Frampton, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Wendelien van Oldenborgh and Katarina Zdjelar, among others. Live performances by artist Mikhail Karikis and Berlin-based video and performance artist Karolin Meunier investigate the immediate and fugitive nature of the voice. Curated by Florian Wüst and Maxa Zoller. (image: One Day, Ditte Haarløv Johnsen, 2007)
Sounds from Beneath | a project by Mikhail Karikis | a video by Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow features among the works of 39 contemporary artists in this year's edition of Manifesta, curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina, Katarina Gregos and Dawn Ades.
Solo Show: SeaWomen by Mikhail Karikis at The Wapping Project, p/v 25th May - 8th July 2012, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London (UK) E1W 3SG, 020 7680 2080, nearest station: Wapping
SeaWomen presents a new body of work by Mikhail Karikis focusing on a community of female sea workers living on the N.Pacific island of Jeju - a volcanic rock between S.Korea, Japan and China. Operating outside the currents of modernisation, this old and fast diminishing community consists of 50-90 y/o women who dive to great depths with no oxygen supply to catch sea-food, collect seaweed and find pearls. Karikis’s immersive installation consists of a film, a sound work and watercolour paintings. It depicts the vocal practices of the women, including the unique sounds of their ancient and transgenerationally-transmitted breathing technique, their work-songs resonating in their camps, the noises of their democratic decision-making, and of other communal activities.
The project witnesses the women’s insistence on sustainable practices operating outside the trend of industrialization; it observes their reversal of traditional gender-roles, their deep sense of community and egalitarianism, their collective economics, and sense of professional identity and purpose in later age.
PODCAST SeaWomen: an interview with Mikhail Karikis and Sofia Saldanha
Eduardo Fernandes Gallery, Sao Paulo, 29 March - 28 Arpil. Solo show presenting photographs and a new film collaboration.
Rua Harmonia 145, Vila Madalena, São Paulo SP, CEP: 05435-000, info@galeriaeduardohfernandes.com, Subway: Vila Madalena
Xenofonia - a new album by Mikhail, Sub Rosa records March '12. Xenofonia continues Mikhail’s exploration of the musical fault-line between middle-eastern and western sounds. This dark but optimistic album has operatic dimensions and is searching for a contemporary Greek voice which wakes up to the ‘alien’ sounds of Europe; a voice which is at times angry and split between the West and the East, the past and the present. Citing Rembetika, Xenakis and J. P. Rameau’s dramatic works as inspirations, Mikhail concocts a meeting between his Anatolian heritage, electronica and sampled avant-garde music to baroque effects.
Xenofonia combines choir, harpsichord, percussion, glitch and environmental recordings. It features Snowdown Colliery Male Voice Choir, Matthias Grübel from German duo Phonºnoir, British vocal trio Juice Vocal Ensemble, Elaine Mitchener, Jade Pybus, Conall Glesson and Amy Cunningham.
Watch a new promo video for Lullographer from the new album here.
Join the album launch on 25 March 2012 at 7pm at Kokon To Zai, 57 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 3DX
Film XENON DVD launch - 16th February 2012, 19:00 at Artsadmin, London. Join us to celebrate the launch of the DVD of XENON the film, released by the Live Art Development Agency as part of their Unbound Series. Based on a performance art opera by Mikhail Karikis, in the film XENON Karikis and the artist/filmmaker David Bickerstaff come together to produce a unique cinematic experience. The film is a poignant political allegory constructed around Karikis’s menacing vision exploring the themes of 'the stranger' and censorship, with David Bickerstaff’s arresting cinematography. Using the original score and performers, seven characters working in an austere office yearn to overcome their oppressive routine and an omnipresent authority, they battle with frustration, self-censorship and failure, and search for their voice, dignity and human rights. See the film trailer here.
A XENON DVD is available from the Live Art Development Agency here.
Listen to BBC London's Jumoke Fashola interviewing Mikhail Karikis on 24th July 2011 about his performance at Royal Opera House. Listen to the radio interview here.
This summer Mikhail Karikis is exhibiting and performing at:
Danish Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale 2011 4th June - 27th November.
3rd Thessaloniki Biennale: Performance Festival/Parallel Programme, 18th Sep - 18th Dec 2011
Spitalfields Festival London performance 23rd June 2011, with Mica Levi, Oliver Coates & Lawrence Crane.
Korean Cultural Centre in London, exhibition 28th June - 31st August 2011
Whitechapel Gallery SELECTED, screening on 30th June 2011
Soundwaves Festival, 16th July 2011
Barbican Centre, What Work Sounds Like, part of Extraordinary Voices, performance 24th July 2011
Royal Opera House, Voices Across the World, performance 31st July 2011
The 54th Venice Biennale has invited Mikhail Karikis to be part of Denmark's representation in this year's international exhibition. He presents photographic work in the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Biennale and performnaces during the opening week. The exhibition Speech Matters aims to provoke debate on the issue of freedom of speech, highlighting the intricacies, ambiguities and grey areas inherent to the subject. The exhibition explores the essence of visual artistic practice, which fundamentally entails conditions of freedom of expression. Curator Katerina Gregos has invited eighteen artists from ten countries to participate: Agency, Ayreen Anastas & Rene Gabri, Robert Crumb, Stelios Faitakis, FOS, Sharon Hayes, Han Hoogerbrugge, Mikhail Karikis, Thomas Kilpper, Runo Lagomarsino, Tala MadaniWendelien van Oldenborgh, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Taryn Simon, Jan Svankmajer, Johannes af Tavsheden, Tilman Wendland and Zhang Dali. For more information please visit the Danish Pavilion website.
Sounds from Beneath tours with SELECTED. Shortlisted artists for the 2010 Film London Jarman Award - Spartacus Chetwynd, Ben Rivers, Zineb Sedira and Emily Wardill - have selected work by filmmaking talent to develop an invigorating new programme of work. Artists in the programme include: Sebastian Buerkner, Zoe Brown, Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow, Piotr Krzymowski, Chooc Ly Tan, Michael Robinson, Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt and Ben Russell.
17 May 2011 : Brighton Festival; 26 May 2011 : Picture This, Bristol; 02 June 2011 : Showroom Cinema, Sheffield; 10 June 2011 : Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle; 23 June 2011 : CCA, Glasgow; 30 June 2011 : Whitechapel Gallery, London
Barbican Theatre in London presents More Soup and Tart in which 30 of the most exciting artists working across visual art, film, music, dance and theatre each give a two-minute performance in the spirit of Jean Dupuy’s legendary 1974–75 events at The Kitchen, New York. Artists incoude: Penny Arcade, Christian Marclay, Martin Creed, Simon Bookish, Frauke Requardt, Edwina Ashton, Ryan Styles, Mark Aerial Waller, Tai Shani, Dog Kennel Hill Project, Tom Woolner, Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), Mikhail Karikis, Rosemary Butcher, William Cobbing, Holly Slingsby, Marcia Farquhar, Andrew Kotting, Jeremiah Day, Lucy Beech and Edward Thomasson, Sam Lee, Stewart Home, John Butcher, Simon Vincenzi, Tim Etchells, Hilary Koob-Sassen, LuckyPDF, Michael Clark, Charles Atlas.
This event takes place on the 15th April 2011. For tickets please contact Barbican Theatre.
Reviews and features on XENON an exploded opera: Culture 24, Reviews Magazine/Kent News (front cover), Stroud Life, Kings Place magazine.
XENON an exploded opera Finale at Kings Place London and at Canterbury Festival
Xenon is the Greek word for 'stranger', a theme which Mikhail Karikis has been exploring in his interdisciplinary collaborative project XENON: an exploded opera. This two-hour long event challenges the boundaries of contemporary opera and performance art, and presents a vocal tour de force featuring new songs, recitations and sound poetry by leading UK performers.
The work responds to the context of international economic calamities, a geographically expanding European Union, and continuing oppressive political regimes, which generate an increasing mobility of populations; moving away from home, people become strangers in their own country or abroad searching for financial stability or safety. XENON orchestrates a series of unexpected encounters between strangers engaged in unlikely acts. Office works, soldiers, a dancer, a reciter of the Declaration of Human Rights, a coal-miners' choir, three mezzo-sopranos and Death’s Ferryman stumble into each other evoking questions of belonging, memory, independence, territory and impossibility.
Performing artists include Monica Ross, Jane Chapman, juice, Conall Gleeson, E.laine, Amy Cunningham, Jade Pybus, Ben Crawley, DJ Miss Bailey, Snowdown Colliery Welfare Male Voice Choir and Mikhail Karikis; the performance includes a video collaboration with visual artist Uriel Orlow.
XENON Act 3
Sounds from Beneath is the third act of a six-part interdisciplinary project by artist Mikhail Karikis entitled Xenon: an exploded opera. Commissioned by East Kent Festival Cluster Sounds from Beneath is an audio-visual piece which finds Karikis in collaboration with visual artist Uriel Orlow and a male colliery choir.
Centred around a new work for voices, Karikis invited Snowdown Colliery Welfare Male Voice Choir to recall and sing the subterranean sounds of a working mine, bringing a desolate disused coalmine back to life through song. A colliery in East Kent, once populated with workers, machines and the sounds of their activities transforms into an amphitheatre haunted by a stranger, resonating sounds of explosions in the ground, machines cutting the coal-face, shovels scratching the earth and the distant melody of the Miner’s Lament, all sung by the choir grouping in formations reminiscent of picket lines.
Sounds from Beneath continues Mikhail Karikis’s exploration of notions of the stranger and his engagement with the voice as a sculptural material, investigating diverse vocal acts and the marginalisation of voices. In addition to the work being a meditation on singing as an act of resistance and community, it ruminates upon the relationship between the human voice and the machine, reflects on the under-representation of old voices, while celebrating communal music-making.
Watch extracts of Sounds from Beneath here.
XENON Act 2
Act 2 is the second part of a six-part interdisciplinary project by artist Mikhail Karikis entitled Xenon: an exploded opera. Commissioned by the Whitstable Biennale and presented as a performance art opera, Act 2 responds to the context of international economic calamities, a geographically expanding European Union, and continuing oppressive political regimes across the globe, which generate an increasing mobility of populations. Moving away from home, people become strangers in their own country or abroad searching for financial stability or safety. Act 2 orchestrates a series of unexpected encounters on stage and in the streets of Whitstable, between strangers engaged in unlikely acts.
Soldiers, a dancer, a reciter of the Declaration of Human Rights, three sopranos and Death’s Ferryman stumble into each other evoking questions on belonging, memory, independence, territory and impossibility. The performance on Sunday 27th June at Umbrella Community Centre in Whitstable, takes the form of a concert in an increasingly militarised and territorialised auditorium. Performing artists include Monica Ross, Juice Ensemble, Conall Gleeson, E.laine, Amy Cunningham, Ben Crawley, Andrew Mitchelson, Jade Pybus and Lauren Davis. A promenade performance with the character of Death’s Ferryman will continue on the streets of Whitstable on 4th July 2010.
XENON: an exploded opera is a collaborative project by Mikhail Karikis commissioned by six UK festivals forming the East Kent Festival Cluster. Prior to the official lauch of the project at Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury on 15th May 2010, a snippet of XENON appears at Sallis Benney Theatre in Brighton on Thursday 13th May 2010 at 7.30pm.
XENON explores the theme of the stranger. The work features an interactive sound installation, peformance art, music concerts, a video installation, and dance events. XENON has political concerns, explores the collective and the individual reflecting on the consequences of estrangement, militarisation and division by staging unlikely congregations of strangers (such as aliens, political exiles, the ferryman of death, sopranos, coal miners, acrobats, a reciter of the Declaratin of Human Rights, to name a few).
Collaborating artists include Monica Ross, Uriel Orlow, Snowdown Colliery Choir, Conall Gleeson, juice, E.laine, Amy Cunningham and Ben Crawley. For more information on the making of this work please visit the XENON blog.
Curated by Mikhail Karikis & Conall Gleeson, director of ensemble Scratch the Surface, Kings Place concert hall presents an exciting interdisciplinary concert which features contemporary music, performance art and installation. The event will feature new works by James Weeks (director of Exaudi), Claudia Molitor, Mikhail Karikis, Jonathan Nangle, Neil Luck and Donnacha Dennehy. Established and emerging performers include Lore Lixenberg, Verity Combe, Jade Pybus, Bobby Krlic and others.
Ensemble Scratch the Surface, 10th May 2010, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London
Coreana Museum (Seoul, s. Korea) presents an international exhibition which explores the theme of the artist's body, its trace, action of identity, role as a shaman/mediator, as well as artists' visions of the post-human body, the painful body, and the body as a resistance to power featuring artists Marina Abramovic, Stelarc, Pipilotti Rist, Marcus Coates, Mikhail Karikis, Markus Hansen, Hyungkoo Lee, Janine Antoni, Julie Jaffrennou, Seung Wook Koh, Miru Kim, Nikki S. Lee, Kanghyun Ahn, Ium, Jaye Rhee, Jia Chang.
Artist's Body, Coreana Museum, Seoul, S. Korea, 6th May - 30th June 2010.
Taking inspiration from Arshile Gorky's artistic journey from figurative painting to abstraction currently exhibited at Tate Modern gallery, Mikhail Karikis is leading an exciting two-day voice workshop entitled Exploding Words with members of the public in the gallery, which will create a parallel voyage accross soundscapes of language and voice art. The workshop will conclude with a public performance on the Turbine Hall Bridge of the Tate Modern on the 17th April 2010 at 4.30 pm.
Exploding Words, Tate Modern, London, UK, 10th & 17th April 13.30–17.30. Photo of mikhail karikis by thierry bal.
Mikhail Karikis presents work at the National Testing Grounds of Live Art at Permanent Gallery in Brighton (UK) alongside Mitch & Parry, Kristin Sherman, Dori Deng and Meta Drcar. Celebrating ongoing and enduring artistic achievements as well as supporting the next generation of creative production, Testing Grounds is curated by Nadege Derderian with Permanent Gallery, supported by the Lighthouse and funded by Arts Council England South East.
7pm at Permanent Gallery, 20 Bedford Place, Brighton BN1 2PT United Kingdom
MORPHICA, Mikhail Karikis's collaborative album released in 2009, is nominated for a Qwartz Electronic Music Award in the artwork category. MORPHICA's artwork is the result of team-work with visual artists, graphic and fashion designers including: Uriel Orlow, Oreet Ashery, Stephen Wilson, Ahn Sung-Hee, Sonia Boyce, Ben Branagan, Ruth Maclennan, Rozalb de Mura, Eva Weaver and others. Other nominees in the same category include: Greta Hoheisel, Mounir Jatoum, Olaf Bender, Raphael Moser and Staalplaat. The award ceremony is held in Paris on 2nd April 2010.
Reviews: Wire, Earlab, Neural, Mondo Sonoro, Spex, Octopus, MusicaReaction, RifRaf, Musiques & Cultures Digitales, Rumore, France Musique, CRD research news, Go Mag, The Gap
Following last year's sold out event Vocal Crossings, curated by voice artist Mikhail Karikis and featuring Sub Rosa label, legendary avant-garde vocalist Linda Hirst and Martyn Bates, we return with a genre-bending evening featuring international vocalists and artists who are coming together especially for this performance. Vocal Crossings II presents cutting edge vocal and interdisciplinary works, in which Mikhail joins forces with Maurice Causey, Nederlands Dans Teater ballet master/choreographer and former principal dancer for W. Forsythe, upcoming contemporary vocal group Juice, composer and DJ Gabriel Prokofiev, early-music vocalist and sound artist Amy Cunningham, avant-jazz singer E.laine, countertenor Ben Crawley, performance artist Monica Ross, composer/violist Conall Gleeson and pioneering harpsichordist Jane Chapman. Vocal Crossings II, 1st February 2010, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG.
Reviews: Art Monthly, Flash Art.
Mikhail Karikis's new collaboration with visual artist Uriel Orlow on his video installation Remnants of the Future is now on show at Laure Genillard gallery in central London. Orlow's video, which focuses on an unfinished Soviet housing project in north Armenia and observes the sparse activities that take place there, takes the form of a sci-fi documentary with haunting, epic imagery. In response, Mikhail Karikis created a soundtrack using sounds emitted by dying stars (otherwise known as pulsars), evoking associations of Soviet futurism, utopianism, space exploration and coded radio signals by Russian spies, as well as referring to the symbol of Communism, the red star.
15 January 2010 - 10 April 2010, Laure Genillard Gallery, 2 Hanway Place, W1T 1HB, London, +44 (0)20 7323 6523
Curated by the innovative live art and performance company Home Live Art, Extraordinary Voices presented on 4th December '09 at Tate Britain features artists, performers and choirs, who explore the voice as an instrument of extraordinary physical and cultural resonance. Expect spectacular performances from Mikhail Karikis, members of The Shout, The London Bulgarian Choir and Georgian Maspindzeli Choir. Plus live sets from Afro Urban DJ Afrogroov, busking from Geoff Fazan and the chance to become part of The Funk Chorus and The Feral Choir.
4th December '09, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, 020 7887 8888
Coinciding with Frieze and Zoo Art Fair in London this October, Mikhail Karikis performs at Laure Genillard Gallery at the opening of the group show Presque Rien III (Next to Nothing III). A series of new photographs by Mikhail entitled Sculpting Voice capturing the transformation of the face in the process of shaping the voice into individual sounds is on show alongside works by Uriel Orlow, Andrea Anastasio, David Batchelor, Matt Calderwood, Sebastian Diaz Morales, Gaylen Gerber, Matthew Harrison, Ane Mette Hol, A Kassen, Tom Molloy, Brian O’Connell, João Onofre, Lisa Oppenheim, Frédéric Pradeau, Troels Sandegård, Padraig Timoney and Peter Wüthrich.
Mikhail Karikis's work is on show at Laure Genillard Gallery, 2 Hanway Pl, London W1T 1HB until 9th January 2010.
September 2009 finds Mikhail Karikis reuniting with Alamire Choir under the direction of David Skinner for a concert in Austria's Trigonale Festival. Organised by Stefan Schweiger, Trigonale features renowned ensembles and soloists including Heinrich Klug, Savadi, Chelycus, I Fagiolini, Nele Gramß, Jan Kobow, Stephan Mc Leod, Melopoetica & Clare Wilkinson and others.
Click here to view photographs of the concert.
From German electrominimal band Telekaster led by Matthias Grübel and British based record label Panic Arrest, comes a new vynil record The Silent Anagram, which features a collaboration with MIkhail. Having heard the orchestral excesses of Mikhail's debut Orphica, Matthias asked Mikhail to conrtibute orchestral and vocal sections to his track "All that is solid melts into noise" - an ambient song full of the poetics of a winter seascape.
You can buy The Silent Alagram here.
Reviews: Art Monthly, Culture 24, Metro, Blueprint.
Recommended by the Guardian newspaper as one of the best shows in London (UK), renowned artist’s Zineb Sedira’s new work Currents of Time finds her again in collaboration with Mikhail Karikis who creates the sound environment of her new ambitious 14-screen installation Floating Coffins. After its great reception at New Arts Exchange in Nottingham in February 2009, the show is now in London’s Iniva until 25th July 2009.
Mikhail Karikis invites artist/curator Cyril Lepetit and Lina Dzuverovic in the role of the convener of a talk on sound and image at Iniva on July 11th at 3pm. The talk is open to the public. More details here.
In May 2009 Mikhail Karikis performs CONTACT at Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne in Switzerland. The work stages a duet for voice and star sounds recorded with space telescopes; the performance is recorded live and the sound sent off into the ether with 200 helium balloons. This performance borrows its title from Carl Sagan’s homonymous novel, it dramatizes someone’s obsession to reach the sky and make contact with aliens and continues Mikhail’s exploration of the theme of the stranger by thinking of the medium of sound as a perpetual immigrant, always traveling away from its place of origin.
This performance is part of Hesperides II curated by Sarah Zurcher and includes artists Oreet Ashery, David Blandy, Robin Deacon, Adrien Sina, Adnré Décosterd & Michel Décosterd, Maja Bajevic, Heinrich Luber with Robert Keller, Fabienne Berger, Franz Erhard Walther, Raeda Saadeh, Christian Pahud, Stéphane Barbier Bouvet, Franics Baudevin and others.
Photo by Helene Tobler.
Reviews: Wire, Earlab, Neural, Mondo Sonoro, Spex, Octopus, MusicaReaction, RifRaf, Musiques & Cultures Digitales, Rumore, France Musique, CRD research news, Go Mag, The Gap
A special MORPHICA website showcasing Mikhail’s forthcoming collaborative triple album is on line now. It includes audio clips of 18 tracks, essays, artworks, videos, interviews and background information on the creation and design of the project. MORPHICA is officially out on the 2nd March 2009 and will be available at Rough Trade and elsewhere. Click here to visit the MORPHICA website. Enjoy!
Review: Music Criticism
Curated by Mikhail, Vocal Crossings brings together for one night only artists from legendary Belgian record-label Sub Rosa with other acclaimed performers. Martyn Bates headlines with band members from Eyeless in Gaza, legendary avant-garde vocalist Linda Hirst pefroms Scelsi alongside performances by Sub Rosa’s co-director Guy-Marc Hinant, Conall Gleeson, E.laine, Bobby Krlic, Gabriel Séverin and Mikhail.
Vocal Crossings, Hall 2, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG. Tuesday 20th January 2009, 8pm (tickets here).
Another chance to see Mikhail perform is at The Voice and Nothing More, a week-long festival with Martin Creed, Simon Faithfull, Dryden Goodwin, Bruce Mclean, Cornelia Parker, Claudia Molitor, Athanasios Argianas, Amy Cunningham, Nick Laessing, Phoebe Unwin, Sarah Kate Wilsonon, Lore Lixembourg, Juice Ensemble and others.
The Voice and Nothings More, Friday 16th January 2009, Slade Research Centre, 10 - 11 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0NS.
Reviews: Wire, Earlab, Neural, Mondo Sonoro, Spex, Octopus, MusicaReaction, RifRaf, Musiques & Cultures Digitales, Rumore, France Musique, CRD research news, Go Mag, The Gap
MORPHICA follows Mikhail's enthusiastically received debut album Orphica (Sub Rosa, 2007) in a genre-bending audiovisual feast. Described by Mikhail as a project about “common cause in uncommon ground”, MORPHICA explores the theme of transformation and politics of difference, having as its starting point the morphing of Mikhail’s debut album. MORPHICA re-imagines the music 'remix' and expands to the realms of visual art and creative writing.
MORPHICA's specially designed and hand-crafted limited edition box set consists of: a triple album (electronics/voices/strings) featuring Mikhail’s studio and live concert recordings of unique collaborations with international musicians ranging from pioneering DJs to acclaimed choirs, upcoming contemporary composers and performers; 15 prints by international visual artists; a poster/book with poems & texts by creative writers, and essays by cultural theorists.
To order a numbered copy prior the official release please email the artist's studio here. There are several methods of payment: paypal, cheque, bank transfer.
Mikhail performs at Colston Hall in Bristol with the Emerald Ensemble on 27 November 2008. This is an Elektrostatic event curated by composer Richard Barnard. The programme includes works by Mikhail, Astor Piazzolla and Gabriel Prokofiev, as well as a new work composed by Richard Barnard for Mikhail and Emerald Ensemble.
Mikhail performs at Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre as part of the Stockhausen ‘Klang’ Festival. The event on 6th November 2008 is organised by the Nonclassical label.
Mikhail performs with Alamire Consort at Sligo Abbey, Drumcliffe Church and Markree Castle Chapel in Ireland on 1st and 2nd November 2008. The concerts conclude the tour of the collaborative project For you, only you with artist Sonia Boyce who created a three-screen video installation featuring the performance of Mikhail’s homonymous composition with the Alamire singers.
The exhibition continues until 15th November 2008 at Model Arts & Niland off-site gallery at Castle House, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland.
Mikhail remixes German folk-tronica group Phon°noir on the their EP Counting Raindrops, available for electronic download on Monday 27 October from Phon°noir's website. Mikhail creates a stark and terrifying expressionist version of ‘We Still Miss the Future’ alongside artists Calika, TG Mauss, Uzi & Ari, Alok, Karl Stirner and Eraze the Borders.
Mikhail creates a new work commissioned by Peter Millican for the inauguration of London’s new concert hall Kings Place. Juice Ensemble and mezzo soprano Clare Wilkinson share the stage with Mikhail to perform his new composition exploring the acoustics of the new building designed by Dixon & Jones architects. Alithia Spuri-Zampetti designed Mikhail's mask.
7pm Kings Place, 90 York Way, 25th September 2008.
Middle Sea is the title of the new film by visual artist Zineb Sedira presented at the Wapping Project in London. Mikhail Karikis composed the ambient music for Middle Sea and created a sculptural sound installation which includes a vibrating sonic-staircase.
The exhibition is open every day 10 September-19 October at The Wapping Project, Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall, London, E1W 3ST.
This is what critic Cherry Smyth writes about the work on Luxonline: 'The highly stylised camerawork renders twilight at the deck-rails incredibly seductive with its Minimalist tones and hard edges. The romance however is off-set by the uncanny soundtrack, composed by Mikhail Karikis, which uses intermittent sound effects to amplify the sense of being lost at sea. There is the itchy static of a radio trying to tune into a frequency in which language can't be understood, mingled with the rumbling of the engine, the trailing voices of a distant party who are never seen. The provenance of the sound is not identified, fading in and out with an eerie, unplaceable music that echoes the timelessness of sea travel and the loss of bearings. The figure stands beyond territory and identity and the soundtrack implies both the freedom and the terror of that.'
On 21st June 2008 Mikhail performs at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Nîmes, France as part of Fête de la Musique. In a site-specific performance entitled Between Two Mouths: A Guided Tour, Mikhail asks ‘What form does a guided tour of an exhibition take when the subject matter of the works depict violence and death, war and cruel beheadings?’
This work continues of Barry Barker’s and Peter Seddon’s exhibition TÊTE À TÊTE avec Cromwell and was part of Scratch the Surface Ensemble’s summer '08 tour. Other artists involved include Conall Gleeson, Jean Martin, Amy Cunningham, Nicola Sweeney, Andrew Mason and others.
The
Times newspaper (13 June 2008) features an article on what journalist
Femke Colborne calls a new ‘revolution’ in music in the UK by
artists at the frontier of experimental classical, dance music and electronica.
Mikhail
Karikis features on the cover of the article with a review on his performance
at the Macbeth in Hoxton (London) organised by the Nonclassical
label.
Other artists included in the article are Juice
Ensemble, Richard Barnard, the Orchestra
of the Age of Enlightenment, Matt
Fretton, Gabriel Prokofiev and others.
The
spring issue of Greek-American art/fashion magazine Mother includes a feature
on Mikhail Karikis:
‘London is a melting pot of ideas and diverse cultures – a
place where I always feel like a stranger, which is a necessary condition
for me
to be
in to be an artist’
photography Sinisa Savic, text Asimina Ntreki
Mikhail
Karikis performs on 15th May 2008 at Sallis Benney Theatre with Scratch
the Surface Ensemble, Conall
Gleeson and Harry Neve. The concert theme for this
year’s Brighton Fringe Festival is “The Aesthetics of Failure” and
includes works by Steve Reich, and new piece by Jean Martin, Karikis & Neve,
and Min Angel.
For performance images please click here/photos.
From
legendary dj, turntablist and producer Dj
Spooky that Subliminal Kid, this
month comes Sound
Unbound – a double album of genre-bending grooves
and Djing featuring a remix of Mikhail’s Untitled
in CoF Minor with
Gerdure
Stein’s "A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson". The line-up
includes Aphex Twin, John
Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Sonic
Youth, Iannis Xenakis,
Sussan Deyhim, Martyn
Bates, Raymond Scott, Terry
Riley, Phillip Glass, Allen
Ginsberg and others.
You can order Sound Unbound double album here.
Italian
fashion house PRADA approached Mikhail Karikis with a new
project. A track from Mikhail’s album Orphica will
present PRADA’s new look in
their next international advertising campaign involving mobile telephone
technology and video
animation.
The
celebrated Choral
Olympic Champions Cantamus
Choir and Mikhail Karikis will
premiere Karikis’s
new work entitled ‘A Stranger Here’ on 26 January
2008 at Emmanuel
Church in Loughbourgh.
This work has been commissioned by Loughborough University, is presented by its new arts programme RADAR curated by Nick Slater.
The video animation Maenads from
Mikhail's debut solo album Orphica was
first shown at the British Film Institute alongside work by Trevor Jackson
and Peter Greenaway. Now Maenands will feature
in the following festivals in Europe:
Rome - Festa Del Cinema (October 19, 2007), Holland - STRP Festival (November 22-27, 2007), Bucharest - AVion Festival (November 30, 2007).
For
you, only you: 29 September 2007 - 6 January 2008
De La Warr Pavilion presents an audiovisual project by Sonia Boyce with Mikhail Karikis and Alamire Consort directed by David Skinner. Boyce creates a three-screen video installation which documents Mikhail Karikis's composition For you, only you performed by Mikhail and the voices of Alamire at Magdalen Chapel, Oxford.
In For you, only you, Mikhail Karikis imagines an unlikely conversation across centuries between the world of harmony in the work of early master Josquin Desprez and Mikhail's own contemporary 'troubled' voice. Strikingly intense and at times frightening, this work at once reflects upon (mis)communication and celebrates difference.
For you, only you is part of Triple Echo exhibition with Terry Smith, Sophy Rickett and Ed Hughes at De La Warr Pavilion. For you, only you is directed by David Bickerstaff. De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex TN40 1DP - Visitor Information
Catch
a preview of Mikhail's new composition For you, only you with
Alamire Consort on BBC
Radio 4 this Monday 29th July 2007 from 10 o'clock in the morning
GMT. This work appears on
Woman's Hour show in a special interview with visual artist Sonia
Boyce who collaborated with Mikhail on this project. Sonia, who is preparing
a video installation featuring Mikhail's performance, to be exhibited at
De La Warr Pavillion in
the UK this Autumn, talks about her work and her recent project with
Mikhail.
Listen to Sonia Boyce's interview and snippets from Mikhail's new choral composition For you, only you here.
A
new essay on
Mikhail Karikis's debut album Orphica,
his recent music performances and other work writtern by author/musician
Michal
Sapir appears on AXIS
- July 07.
Orphica is now available at HMV stores and on-line. Click on the image below for more information.
Mikhail's debut solo album Orphica is receiving excellent reviews internationally on printed press and on-line. To read what French newspaper 'Le Monde', National Radio and others have said click here. To find out more about Orphica visit the Orphica special site where you can download visuals, listen to clips, view videos and more.
Mikhail
is performing his collaborative work with performance artist Oreet Ashery
entitled "Welcome Home: Memorial Service" at Lite
Festival, De Balie theatre in Amsterdam. To read more about the work
first performed in London in June '06 click here.
You can buy tickets at the entrance; to prebook follow the links below:
22nd April '07, 8:30pm Memorial Service at De Balie, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 1017 RR Amsterdam
Mikhail's
video for the song Maeands from
his forthcoming Orphica album
has been selected for screening at cutting-edge audiovisual festival Optronica at
BFI's National Film Theatre near
Waterloo in London. To book tickets click here.
15th March '07, 8:20pm Video in Demand at The Studio, NFT
16th March '07, 6:30 pm Video in Demand at NFT3
Optronica will kick off at the biggest screen in Britain, the IMAX cinema with Deakin&Franglen (Lemon Jelly) and Trevor Jackson. Other performances, talks and screenings include Peter Greenaway, Christian Fennesz, Charles Atlas, Semiconductor, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Vj Anyone, Cindy Keefer and others.
Maenads video was directed by Paul Gittins.
Mikhail
Karikis's drawings, video and soundwork feature in an exhibition of contemporary
art entitled "Draw Me a Video" at Alexia Goethe Gallery, in London
(UK). Other artists in the show include Farina Alam, Lela
Budde, Sara
Haq,
Lia
Anna Hennig and Phoebe
Hui Fong-Wah.
Exhibition open from 14th February to 31st March 2007 at Alexia Goethe Gallery, 7 Dover Street, London, W1S 4LD.
Mikhail's videos will
be screened at the BAFTA (British
Academy of Film and Television Arts) cinema as part of Light as Art. This event explores light, display and digital technology
for the new generation of buildings, and is organised by Projected-Image
Digital and
architectural
practice Cadmium Design.
Mikhail’s
sound work appears on a new audio cd - 'Bend it Like Beckett' -
produced by the annual festival ‘Art
Trail – Sound Works’ to commemorate the Samuel Beckett
Centenary.
The cd has been curated by Danny Mc Carthy and has100 tracks, one minute
long each! Artists featuring in the compilation include Scanner, Stephen
Vitiello,
David Toop, Phil
Durrant, Stefano
Tedesco, Richard
Crow, Una
Walker
and others.
To buy the cd click on 'Aphasia Recordings'.
Mikhail
Karikis has been commissioned to produce a sound-work for an audio-guide
project at the Sir
John Soane’s Museum in London. The museum,
located near Holborn, was designed by Soane in the late 1700s
and is considered one of Britain's architectural masterpieces. The
project
is curated by Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga and Carmen Cebreros. More details
on the sound project and opening dates will be posted here soon.
Mikhail
is presenting new work on 16th June 2006,
at the Great Hall in Mile End (London)
in a performance devised with artist Oreet Ashery as part of
a three-day festival on Performance and Human Rights (PSi
12). The performance,
entitled 369 Villages - Memorial Service, is dedicated to eradicated
Palestinian villages and explores the Right to Return. For more information
on the event visit
the project's website click here.
In
July 2005, Mikhail Karikis's film Sightings of Domestic Wildlife: ∏APA∑ITA,
for 8mm celluloid and radio interference, which documents the life cycle of domestic moths
is screened at the international Synch
Festival of Electronic Music and Digital Arts, Athens
(Greece). Watch the film here.
In
an international song competition initiated by Björk,
the composition "Once More" in CoF Minor by Mikhail Karikis
was selected and released in the famous singer's CD with remixes and pieces
inspired by her song Army of Me. Mikhail's song, "Once
More" in CoF Minor and
the work of nineteen other artists that feature on the same album
were selected from over 600 entries. The critically acclaimed album, which
is entitled Army of Me, has been released worldwide and the profits
go to UNICEF. To purchase the cd please visit the record label One
Little Indian. See reviews.
Read more...
