Auto Italia, London, 10 October 2020 — 07 February 2021
Jim C. Nedd and Invernomuto
Fiesta En Guacherna, Barranquilla, 2020, Jim C. Nedd. Installation view of PICO: Un parlante de África en América, 2020, Auto Italia, London, UK. Courtesy of the artist. Photographer: Lucy Parakhina.
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PICO: Un parlante de África en América, 2020, Invernomuto & Jim C Nedd. Auto Italia, London, UK. Courtesy of the artists. Photographer: Lucy Parakhina.
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PICO: Un parlante de África en América, 2020, Invernomuto & Jim C Nedd. Auto Italia, London, UK. Courtesy of the artists. Photographer: Lucy Parakhina.
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PICO is a new programme of sonic inquiry led by artists Invernomuto & Jim C. Nedd. In this exhibition, the documentary film PICO: Un Parlante de África en América (60 minutes, HD film, 2017) examines the rich and flamboyant tradition of picós: vivid, technicolour, wooden structures housing powerful sound systems, which turbocharge street parties, bars and restaurants across the Afro-Colombian port cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena.

The film brings together the various actors involved in the production and dissemination of picó culture, who together track its legacy across the cities that were once key points in the transatlantic slave routes. It is here, in the Atlantic costeño, that the Afro-Colombian cultures formed new aesthetic and sonic styles were popularised to represent these new linguistic and cultural groups.

These ports continued to be key entry points to the continent throughout the 20th century, granting access to emergent technologies and cultural products as well as vinyls from across West Africa. From the 1960s, local producers began using these new systems for the circulation and dissemination of music outside of mainstream radio and record production, bringing an explosion of African sound to the streets. This was dominated by the newborn genre called Champeta, which brought together Salsa, Latin and Caribbean music. As sampling technologies developed, an updated version of Champeta emerged, and later the adjacent genre Guarapo. These new Afro-Colombian sounds, reverberating from the culture of picó, came to represent acts of freedom in a national context divided along the lines of race and class.

The picó has become the loud and animated public vehicle through which this diasporic vernacular of rhythm and language is articulated, in which a diverse subjectivity is united through the empowering acts of dance and music. The film explores how these physical contexts enable communities to come together and re-define social relationships against the backdrop of racial capitalist subjugation, and how sound system culture as an attitude towards production enables producers and audiences to celebrate multifaceted and kaleidoscopic cultural histories.

For this project at Auto Italia, this investigation will situate picó culture within a global discussion on the role and potential of sound system cultures as sites of sonic resistance. This will be explored through a digital programme of text, mix and image commissions led by an international community of producers, DJs and artists for whom sonic practices are communal devices to explore the global resonances of African diasporic sound within music production. This will focus on the ways in which uprising and protest are explored through music, and highlight how the formal communalities and shared concerns resonate between networked physical and digital sound system cultures across the globe.

This investigation will also include a newly commissioned public work by Jim C. Nedd, installed on the facade of Auto Italia’s project space. This will draw from the lens of documentary film and explore the political potential of music in public environments of celebration and dissent.

The exhibition PICO: Un Parlante de África en América has been made possible with the support of Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Londras.

Auto Italia’s commissions are made possible by our Exhibition Circle and Member supporters.

Invernomuto Simone Bertuzzi (b.1983, Italy) and Simone Trabucchi (b.1982, Italy) have been working together as Invernomuto since 2003. Their shared practice focuses on moving image and sound, with integration of sculpture, performance and publishing into their work. Recent solo presentations include The MAC, Belfast (2017); Artspeak, Vancouver (2015); Triennale di Milano, Milan (2014); and Museion, Bozen (2014).

Jim C. Nedd (b. 1991) Jim explores the themes of collective memories, shared experiences, and his Caribbean culture through his surreal and dream like photography. He has exhibited work at Damien The Love Guru, CFA, Milan (2020); Athens Biennial, Athens (2020); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2020); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2020) and Sandy Brown, Berlin (2020).

In Conversation: Larisa Kingston Mann a.k.a. DJ Ripley, Invernomuto and Jim C. Nedd
14 Oct 2020, 19:00 — 20:00

Join musician, DJ and scholar Dr. Larisa Kingston Mann in conversation with exhibiting artists Invernomuto & Jim C. Nedd.

Technology workshops for young people in East London
26 Oct 2020 — 28 Oct 2020

An art and technology workshop for young people creating visual responses to the exhibition PICO: Un Parlante de Africa en América.

Sidney Reyes Reyes

PICO: Africando

Christelle Oyiri

PICO: The forgotten history of Logobi, an Ivorian dance on the streets of Paris

Axis Arkestra

PICO: The Commandant Zabra Effect

Jeanpi Perreo

PICO: El Rey Latino

Rabz Lansiquot

PICO: Bass Culture

Don Alirio

PICO: El Paquito Efectivo

Deborah Pacini Hernandez

PICO: Sound Systems, World Beat and Diasporan Identity in Cartagena, Colombia

Edna Martinez

PICO: Getsemani

Auto Italia x Invernomuto & Jim C Nedd.

PICO: Interview

Dairo Barriosnuevo

PICO: Dairo Barriosnuevo

Black Obsidian Sound System

PICO: Black Obsidian Sound System

Authentically Plastic

PICO: Authentically Plastic

Lilibeth

PICO: Lilibeth

BŪJIN

PICO: BŪJIN

I-vye

PICO: I-vye

Christelle Oyiri

PICO: Christelle Oyiri

Invernomuto and Jim C. Nedd

PICO: Invernomuto and Jim C. Nedd

iD

A new exhibition traces the history of Colombian street parties

Bubblegum Club

PICÓ: Un parlante de África en América’ | sound system cultures as sites of sonic resistance

Artforum

Critic Picks: “PICÓ: Un parlante de Africa en America”

Contemporary &

A musical portal for Africa in the Caribbean

Frieze

Behind the Scenes of Colombia’s Street Parties

Frieze

Top Ten Virtual Shows Across the UK and Ireland