Radio Play: This Breath is a Lifeworld with Sophia Mitiku, Gery Mendes and Raziyah Heath
Metro54 has been invited as one of fifteen art institutions and organizations to present a program during the 36th edition of the São Paulo Biennale—one that aligns with and responds to the artistic vision of this edition. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase primarily Dutch artists and curators based in the Netherlands as well as to introduce a group of emerging artists, makers and cultural producers within such an internationally acclaimed artistic manifestation as the São Paulo Biennale.
Radio Play: This Breath is a Lifeworld
You are still alive,
like hydrogen, like oxygen
— Dionne Brand
Radio Play: This Breath is a Lifeworld is a public gathering with performances, poetry and sounds. This program is a proposition to dream out loud, building upon the vibrant sonic and visual cultures as well as addressing the racial, political and ecological turmoil that shape our societies, streets and wellbeing of our communities. To breathe within these supremacist structures, from a racialized position, is to intervene into its apparatus of violence and repression. It is to be hungry for air, to desire aliveness and rehearse ways to remember each other.
With this program we bring together storytelling, sounds, art, performances, music and conversations that attune to our laughter, losses, love, regrets, memories, chaos, black outs and desire to catch our breath in these times of duress. Whose oxygen is compromised? After all, we don’t all breathe the same air nor does breathing together rarely mean breathing the same.
Centralizing four lifeworlds that bring to life intimate stories and fabulation, humor, dance, silence and songs, which emerge from (art), cultural and sonic practices, we hope to address the politics of breathing and imagination in cities that don’t care for marginalized people's imagination, dreams and wellbeing. With contributions by vocalist and sound artist Sophia Mitiku , theater maker, musician and artist Gery Mendes and sound artist Raziyah Heath.
Raziyah Heath is a sound artist, programmer, DJ and artist. At the moment she mainly delves into sonic realms/dimensions and uses DJing under the name Chinnamasta as a medium for research and discoveries. Their work aims to uncover the cross pollinations of Afro-diasporic (sub)cultures and sonic threads and centralizes the variations, range and intersectionality of lived experiences as a result of this.
Sophia Mitiku is a Korean-Ethiopian singer, song-writer and sound artist based in Helsinki. Her work delves into a wide range of post-genre exploration resulting in contemporary productions of RnB, pop, trip hop, and electronic music.
Gery Mendes is an artist, musician and theater maker based in Rotterdam. His work brings together music, storytelling, movement and film, drawing inspiration from his Cape Verdean roots with new songs and a distinctive blend of traditional Cape Verdean styles and hip hop.
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Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice, the 36th Bienal de São Paulo (September 2025 - January 2026) will be led by chief curator Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung together with his conceptual team. The exhibition takes its cue from Afrobrazilian poet Conceição Evaristo’s enigmatic poem Da calma e do silêncio [Of calm and silence]. The central proposal of this Bienal is to rethink humanity as a verb, a living practice, in a world that requires reimagining relationships, asymmetries and listening as the basis for coexistence.
Metro54 is pleased to accept the invitation for the Conjugation program, which aims to bring together institutions from around the world to collectively conjugate, explore and celebrate humanity. For Metro54 invitations like these often come with the expectation that we facilitate our own program including travel and accommodation costs. The organization provides logistical and production support as well as PR and communication assistance for the presentation, hence our formal request for support from the Dutch consulate in São Paulo towards a public presentation curated by Metro54 and a visitors research program for young artists, cultural workers, curators and makers of color from the Netherlands to attend the Biennale as well as visit like-minded (independent) art spaces, initiatives and collectives to foster time for knowledge-sharing and exchange but also expands the artistic horizon.
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🔥Date: September 7th, 2025
🔥Time: 13h-15h Local Time
🔥Location: Varanda Bienal Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion Ibirapuera Park, Gate 3 Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n São Paulo, SP
🔥Entrance: Free