10 > 14.03.2021 | Maja Jantar + Paradise Now – Sonopoetics Residency – Namur

After a promising first residency mixing sound poetry, singing, electronic treatments and guitaristic landscapes at Productions Rhizome in Quebec, during the Month of Poetry, in March 2020, Maja Jantar and Philippe Franck (alias Paradise Now) meet again, a year later, this time hosted by the Delta in Namur to complete their common material – textual and musical -. In the end, a joint hybrid publication is envisaged as well as a poetic audio performance integrating ranges of freedom as well as traveling compositions.

Maja Jantar (NL/PL): Of Polish origin, living in Belgium for several years, Maja Jantar is a multilingual and polysonic vocal artist whose work covers the fields of performance, musical theater, poetry and visual arts. Co-founder of the Krikri group, she has given solo and collaborative performances across Europe.

She has been working on poetic sound works since 1995. From 2001 until today, Maja has conducted ten operas, including the Monteverdi classic, Incoronatione di Poppea and the contemporary Infinito Nero by Sciarrino. Some of his visual poetry has been published in various publications, among others the book Zieteratuur (Nl), and his visual work has been shown in several exhibitions, recently a selection of ink and paper from his Lilith series could be seen at Kunsttempel Kassel (De).

This year, she also participated in the collective exhibition La Voix Libérée at the Palais de Tokyo (Fr). Finally, she continues to collaborate with Belgian (including – regularly – Vincent Tholomé) and foreign poets (Angela Rawlings, Steven J. Fowler…) and interdisciplinary artists.

Paradise Now (BE/FR): Intermedia producer and creator based in Belgium, Philippe Franck has developed since the 90s the Paradise Now project which favors an actively transversal and collaborative approach. He favors a sensitive and cinematic approach that embraces different influences and fields (electronics, sound art, post-rock, post-pop, improvised music …).

He has worked closely with various videographers (Régis Cotentin, Hanzel & Gretzel), poets (Ira Cohen, Gerard Malanga, Catrine Godin, Biba Sheikh, Werner Moron in Les ours bipolaires, Eric Therer for the project & Stuff), choreographers (Nadine Ganase , Manon Oligny, Karine Ledoyen), digital artists (Philippe Boisnard, Franck Soudan, Jacques Urbanska, Thomas Israël) and other adventurous audio creators (recently Christophe Bailleau within the duo Pastoral, Gauthier Keyaerts in Supernova, Stephan Dunkelman, Maurice Charles JJ, A Limb).

Since 2005, he has also collaborated with holistic performer / masseuse Isa Belle for a series of installations and “sound” performances shown in numerous festivals, cultural centers and international events. He has also produced and participated in several records on various independent labels (Sub Rosa, Optical Sound, Transonic…).