Saturday, December 14th at 8pm, ISSUE Project Room is thrilled to close the 2024 Season with long overdue live performances by multidisciplinary artist and musician–belonging to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people–Chuquimamani-Condori, and Brooklyn-based vocalist and producer Embaci. The year-end event at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn marks both artists’ return to ISSUE after postponement of events during the COVID-19 pandemic and each artist’s digital commissions during 2021.
In a 2022 issue of Bellona Magazine, essayist Rafael Lubner writes on the marriage of past and future in the Aymaran artist’s work: “It is a future that is unbounded and unfolding, requiring an imaginative leap away from the present’s distribution of the sensible, a flight into forms of being and relations to land and time that are both wholly incompatible with the colonial and deeply enmeshed in Aymaran knowledges and politics.” The future is behind us for poet/composer/producer Chuquimamani-Condori, quite literally, as ISSUE finally brings their solo work to Brooklyn three years after stay-at-home orders required the organization to produce an online presentation of their video work in 2021 (as Elysia Crampton Chuquimia). Now live for the first time at ISSUE, Chuquimamani-Condori will perform songs from their most recent album DJ E released in November 2023, alongside a special selection of unreleased material. Keeping with this nonlinear relationship to space and time, the artist will draw from traditional music but combine vivid teclas, CDJ, BOSS sampler, and baby grand across the presentation of the project.
Sharing an extensive collaborative history with Elysia Crampton Chuquimia, vocalist Embaci will open the evening. In 2021, the mesmerizing singer co-created the experimental video performance “Seasons In A Quasar” for ISSUE with frequent collaborator and composer Dasychira, who also released “Undead” earlier this year with both artists. Embaci produced the fourth limited-edition cassette in ISSUE’s series of ‘Distributed Objects’ exclusively for their members. The tape features remixes by Nidia Minaj, and Ashanti, acapellas by Missy Elliot, and features from Air Max '97, E+E, and more. Embaci’s “NO ISSUES” 004 mixtape will be available for purchase, and free for new ISSUE Members at the concert until supplies last. Sex Magazine writes: “The artist Embaci’s highly anticipated, premiere solo track ‘Tiniest Whisper’ is six years in the making. Over that time, the musician has released lush mixes and arresting live sets…we’ve been able to witness the culmination of someone discovering herself at her own pace, a documentation of a blooming sonic vision that balances aesthetic sensitivity and vulnerability with grace and power.”
Chuquimamani-Condori makes music by combining the traditional drum and ceremonial music from their Pakajaqueño family, with caporales, kullawada, and huayño. They describe their music as "the sound of our water ceremonies...40 bands playing their melodies at once to recreate the cacophony of the first aurora and the call of the morning star Venus."
Embaci is an artist and musician whose creations transport listeners to a celestial, alternate universe, vividly reflecting her boundless imagination. Celebrated for her ethereal voice and poetic lyricism, she has garnered international acclaim as both an artist and a multidisciplinary virtuoso. Her music transcends conventional genre boundaries and flourishes within collaborative processes. Embaci's sonic visions are a testament to her artistic sensitivity and emotional depth, striking a harmonious balance between delicacy and strength that resonates deeply with audiences. She has performed or exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art(London, UK), Yale Union (Portland, OR), Abrons Arts Center (New York, NY), MoMA PS1 (New sYork, NY), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, DE), ISSUE Project Room (New York, NY), The Bourse de commerce - Pinault Collection (Paris, FR), and Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zürich, CH).
