LiberAiya
Max Petersen & Melody Chua
Installation: All Day
Performance: 18:00
Through the act of play, LiberAiya confronts visitors with a core challenge of liberal societies: sustaining communication among the unfamiliar and the oppositional.
A collaboration between the German-Australian pianist and composer Max Petersen’s LiberA ensemble and the American transdisciplinary artist Melody Chua’s AIYA improvisation machine, LiberAiya takes the form of an interactive installation and a set of performances.
In the installation, visitors are invited to explore and play with a musical improvisation machine created by Chua, called AIYA. The work considers playing with the improvisation machine as a way of engaging with the unfamiliar and the “othered.” What do we do if AIYA confronts us with the uncomfortable and oppositional? Instead of shutting down, do we have the capacity to continue the dialogue? How can we adapt to new ways of expression, where one is not suppressed by the other?
By interacting with AIYA, indeterminate narratives are told through video footage of protests from around the world and from different political positions, recognizing that holding space for opposing views of social change is vital for a pluralistic society. The footage, paired with texts selected and composed by the artists, offer varied glimpses into the possibilities of peaceful protest, tolerance, and expression beyond reactionism. Not only raising fists, but also holding hands.
In the evenings, performances with the AIYA improvisation machine and members of Petersen’s LiberA ensemble will take place.
