IN·​FLO·R​ES·​CENCE

About

Championing the power of jazz, this project fosters freedom, experimentation, improvisation, rhythm, polyrhythm, collaboration, dialogue, and sophistication – hard work fuelled by epiphanies, a call and response. Social power. 

Sonic power.

In its introductory digital stage, ​IN·​FLO·R​ES·​CENCE e​xists as an unfolding social media platform across Instagram, Vimeo, and The Showroom website whereby audiences can discover music compositions, interdisciplinary conversations, listening sessions, and behind-the-scenes creative inspirations. In order to create opportunities to commission music, share personal experiences, and foster collective conversations, ​IN·​FLO·​RES·​CENCE​ brings together 10 Composers, 1 Solo Pianist, a diverse mix of music and art professionals, and an ever-growing global audience. Each of the participating composing musicians (​J.D. Allen​,​ Bokani Dyer​, Sarathy Korwar​,​ Nduduzo Makhathini​,​ Siya Makuzeni​,​ Elaine Mitchener​,​ Corey Mwamba​, Thandi Ntuli​,​ Luis Carlos Pérez​, and ​Leyanis Vald​é​s Reyes​) were invited to create a piece for solo piano around 1 minute in length responding to the changes to daily life during the global coronavirus outbreak. These individual pieces will all be interpreted and performed by the project’s first Artist-in-Residence, Cuban New York-based Pianist, Composer, and Band Leader Elio Villafranca​, throughout the duration of the project.

These musical offerings will be activated by the commissioned musicians through recorded conversations between each other, Journalist ​Kevin Le Gendre​ (Broadcaster and Writer of Don't Stop the Carnival: Black British Music​, 2019), and a group of creative professionals whose practices are deeply informed by sound, including The Showroom Director and Curator ​​Elvira Dyangani Ose​​; Jazz Musician ​​Jason Moran​​; Composer Pianist ​​Vijay Iyer​​; Theorist and Filmmaker ​​Kodwo Eshun​​; Sound Artist Peter Adjaye; Curators Christine Eyene, Katherine Finerty, Andrea Giunta, Brinda Kumar, and Temi Odumosu; multimedia Artists including ​​Phoebe Boswell​, ​Andrew Pierre Hart​, Evan Ifekoya​, ​Laura Lima​​ and​ ​Charmaine Watkiss;​ ​and more. The community created will flower into multiple, growing conversations serving as a living archive for expanding jazz within personal, collective, and creative contexts.

The structure of multiple voices at the core of this project is inspired by an​ inflorescence​: a cluster of flowers arranged on a stem, comprising a complicated arrangement of branches, further referencing the budding of blossoms – the process of flowering, a moment of unfolding, the stage of development full of possibility and production.​ ​This anatomical concept is also eponymous with the 1989 avant-garde album by American Pianist and Poet ​​Cecil Taylor​ (1929–2018), whose practice has fused sound and art since the 1950s free jazz and New York loft scene through till this decade with his ​Open Plan​ exhibition at The Whitney Museum in 2016. As reflected in the meaning of this word, Taylor’s experimental ethos, and the political agency of jazz, this project aims to activate the global history of creative cross-pollination between musical and visual art communities through a gathering of voices reflecting upon the conditions of this unique historical moment. Through these participatory and expansive modes of connection, ​IN·F​LO·R​ES·C​ENCE ​will create a constellation – an inflorescent cluster – filled with multiple voices, active listening, a poetic source of knowledge, and a resonant echo of call and response. A space to breathe, listen, create, and connect.

This project is conceived by ​Reece Ewing​ and curated with Assistant Curator ​Katherine Finerty​, in collaboration with ​The Showroom, London​, directed by ​Elvira Dyangani Ose​.