Kayīb is a sound performance combining formerly forbidden songs from the Caucasus and Middle East, as well as histories of charlatanism and auto-tune. From mystics in Paris such as G.I.Gurdjieff to Emperor Haile Salassie’s fascination with Armenian musicians, the performance brings together chance encounters between historical and musical figures. Arutiunian is interested in “sonic dissent” (the identification and resistance to dominant powers of sonic traditions that surround our ears). Through a series of hypnotic and repetitive sonic movements that transform extracted voices and materials, the performance unfolds as a complex interplay of multiple illicit voices gathering the audience in the act of collective listening.
Kayīb departs from Arutiunian’s recent series of works based on gharīb (a notion referring to strangeness manifesting through musical and political peripheries).
Andrius Arutiunian (b. 1991) is an Armenian-Lithuanian artist and composer based between Paris and The Hague. Arutiunian works with hybrid forms of music through installations, film, sculpture and performances.
