Victor Gama at the Africa Festival in July 2007, Lisbon, playing one of his Pangeia Instrumentos, the Acrux.
Gama presented his latest show, fwd:utopia, with fellow musicians Tiago Cerqueira and musician/dancer Antonio Tavares.
For this show Gama projected images of houses in ruins in the desert of Namibe in the south of Angola where he has been doing several other projects.
Next Gama dates are 29th July, Glat&Verkerhrt festival in Austria and coming up dates in Portugal and elsewhere.
VICTOR GAMA:
Victor Gama was born in Angola and currently lives in
Sintra, Portugal. He is a composer, performer, designer of
innovative musical instruments as well as an electronics
engineer. Several of his music works have been recorded
on CD including Pangeia Instrumentos on Aphex Twin's
Rephlex Records.
He has exhibited his instruments and sound installations
and performed extensively in Africa, Latin America, USA,
Canada and Europe having received a Project Development Award by Visiting Arts/British
Council for his exhibition and performance at Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast in 2004. Gama is
part of the "Berimbau-Ungu" project with the legendary Brazilian percussionist Nana
Vasconcelos with whom he has recently toured in Southern Africa. He's collaborated recently
with William Parker and Guillermo Brown on the Folk Songs for the Five Points, a digital arts
project initiated by David Gunn in New York commissioned by the Lower East Side Tenement
Museum. In 2006 he has exhibitied in New York and recorded live a collaborative session for
BBC's Radio 3 program Mixing It with celebrated british sound arist Max Eastley.
Gama initiated the Pangeia Instrumentos project in the early 90's in which he uses form as a
variable in the composition process. He has since developed The Golian Modes Theory in
which the score has a three dimensional component. The Golian Modes are four musical modes
derived from the ancient Kongo/Angolan graphic writing system known as "Bidimbu". The basis
of the Golian Modes are the fundamental cosmogram known as "Dikenga", and the concept of
"N'kizy", a religious object that is used to establish communication with the ancestor's world.
Gama has introduced in his work technologies such as CAD/CAM, laser stereolithography,
injection molding and pulse cutting in collaborations with the University of Loughbourough,
London Metropolitan University and the Rapid Prototyping Consortium in the UK.
He has initiated and produced the Odantalan project in Luanda, Angola in 2002, an artistic
residency and conference with musicians, art historians and religious leaders from Angola,
Portugal, Colômbia, Cuba and Brazil. The project analyses the processes of resistance that
Africans once used against cultural imposition and devises new strategies and methods of
cultural generation.
He has also initiated the Tsikaya project, the first digital archive of tradional musics in Angola, a
partnership between his organization PangeiArt and the Angolan NGO's ADRA/Bismas from
Angola.
He has participated in Yehudi Menuhin's programme Mus-e and is a member of the Yehudi
Menuhin Foundation. He is the artistic director and founder of PangeiArt -- Assoc. Cult. an
organization that aims at bridging the worlds of culture, art and development.
Several of his works and projects have been sponsored and commissioned by The Prince
Claus Fund, The Gulbenkian Foundation, Instituto Camões, The Portuguese Performing Arts
Council, CNCDP/Portuguese Council of Ministers, Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa,
Visiting Arts /British Council, Arts Council England and EPAL.
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PANGEIA INSTRUMENTOSby pangeiainstrumentos3,900 views
Superb job. keep up the great job. 5 stars are in order.
Mtimkhulu 4 years ago
Bravo!
Gilb777 4 years ago
holy !%$%&$%*%^...yeah! Very inspiring.
gregoryburrows 4 years ago
great sounds, amazing creativity! Post more!
serralua 4 years ago