There’s a breeze of kaleidoscopic tunes that have been invading our homes, clubs & favorite websites lately. A torrent of ultra-vitaminated psychedelic sounds that will help you relax in the most stressful situations or under the most extreme climatological conditions.
Funnily enough while posting the other day about the “Coalition of the willing” & diving into the “60′s counterculture movement”… all those dreams, idealisms & colorful experiences the film talks about seem to get along with these new beach music trends coming from Barcelona, Ontario, Berlin, Baltimore, L.A, London ……….. they perfectly match with that Internet democracy expressionism we’re finding lately via crowdfunding tools, spontaneous on-line movements (like against British Petroleum), social & common freedom… (and I’m not talking about Myspace).
Probably is just part of the music industry machinery who was in great need of substituting the 00s electro & hip-hop waves, so most “indie” labels (warp, anticon, domino, xl, fatcat… ) have found their own melody-drug magician.
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No alcohol for Mr. Zumbakamera (aka Jossie Malis), born Peruvian, adopted as a Chilean although vocationally Spanish / Catalan. A very latin parcour noticeable in each of his colour drops, each animation sequence and each line of those surrealistic and many times psychedelic plots…
You’ll probably know him for his Memento Mori animated short… the most anguishing way of dying without any doubts is being trapped inside a lift which goes down to hell. A piece that did not only collect several international awards (EEUU, Argentina, Spain) but also got the creative directors of MTV International interested in this work…. they finished using it as one of their irreverent ads.
Part of his work has been broadcasted in websites, compilations and international festivals or networks such as… Stash, Resfest, Channel Frederator, Pictoplasma, Annecy…. Flash Forward, IdN, Carton D’or and many more. Lately he’s been working on a Franco-German documentary focused on the Andean coca leaf and another doc for Stanford university around genetic illnesses.
aqnb: How’re you doing Jossie? A few questions?
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Having lived in South Africa for a while I am more than glad to see lots of reports & documentaries about the country these days when I turn on my TV (especially with the World cup excuse).
For many years, South Africa has been intimately related in people’s minds with words such as violence, racism, corruption, rape… and maybe diamonds for the eldest. Even though recently many others are starting to appear … like from now on “soccer”, those massive gigs with African artists and a word unknown before and on its way to find room in our encyclopedias : “vuvuzela”. If we add some toponyms such as Polokwane or Bloomfontein, we will then reach the conclusion that our collective image & idea about South Africa has radically changed overnight.
South Africa: Worth as much as diamonds (photo by kool skatkat)
If South Africa doesn’t seem to generate many top of mind images or collective representations it may be because of the incredible disparity of population, languages, customs, habits & landscapes this country has.
Because in the end, what is South Africa like ?
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When I was about to move to Bristol I started digging about the city lifestyle, the art scene, what to visit, explore, experience…. I heared it was considered to have one of the biggest graffiti scenes not only in the UK but also in Europe with famous artists such as Banksy, Nick Walker, Felix Braun or John Nation coming out of its streets. Then a Londoner came to me and said… “Bristol huh? Yeah well…. you can expect loads of street crap, but that’s all you’ll get”.
- “street crap” near the Royal west of England Academy
And sadly for Bristol this statements turns to be true, although there are a few big known cultural venues you can count on the fingers of one hand (Tobacco Factory, Arnolfini, Watershed, PaintWorks, Spike Island, Old Vic, Cube…. OK that’s more than one hand) as the local museums & galleries are just…. well…. too minimalistic (to put it nice). On the other side you cannot expect a humongous cultural calendar in a city of barely 430k people, but hey, things like the Mayfest, St Paul’s Carnival, Harbour Festival, the Balloon Fiesta, …. there are things to do, don’t get me wrong but… being from a big city….I just prefer an overwhelming choice list.
However, there’s something about the street art scene which makes Bristol unique, Bristol is UK’s “graffiti city” indeed.
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