This is our first off-site event and we are thrilled to be running it at Café OTO.
Bringing together nine artists and musicians who have exhibited or performed at DIVFUSE micro art exhibition space in Lower Clapton E5 since its doors first opened to public in July 2021, this evening is to celebrate different aspects of the making of experimental sound and multi-media art as well as the 4th anniversary of the project.
44 Gatherings by Gabriella Day (UK) is one of the three sets of work that are selected from DIVFUSE Film Archive Open Call No.1 with a theme on domesticity.
Film Screenings: Session One 9 August Saturday 4pm (+artist’s talk)[Cancelled] Session Two 9 August Saturday 6pm (+ artist’s talk)[Cancelled] Session Three 10 August Sunday 3pm Session Four 10 August Sunday 4:30pm
£8 for sessions with artist’s talk and £5 for other sessions | 8 places only per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets
Running time: 31 minutes.
44 Gatherings (2025) is a film that creates a space between abstraction and figuration with a familiar human gesture: folding sheets. The performers, who are folding sheets of household fabric, were given basic restrictions of filming without being choreographed so that this single-take captures moments of vulnerability and awkwardness. The live guitar, played by Michael Raphael, responds to the movement of the performers as well as the formal qualities of the fabric. The repetition of this over-looked activity aims to abstract the movement into colour and form and to create an ever-changing composition.
Gabriella Day (b. 1998, Bristol) is an artist based between London and Glasgow working with painting, film and collage. Throughout all mediums, Gabriella’s work aims to find automatic compositions that capture the act of placing forms together without an initial intention to make a picture, something that is often found in acts of daily life. Through this process, Day’s work fragments moments of representation until colour and form are at the forefront.
Notes on Listening (UK) is one of the three sets of work that are selected from DIVFUSE Film Archive Open Call No.1 with a theme on domesticity.
Film Screenings + Audio Essay + Photography Documentation :
Session One 25 July 2025 Friday 7pm (+ artist’s talk)[FULL] Session Two 26 July Saturday 3pm Session Three 26 July Saturday 4:30pm Session Four 26 July Saturday 6pm (+ artist’s talk) Session Five 27 July Sunday 3pm Session Six 27 July Sunday 4:30pm
£8 for sessions with artist’s talk and £5 for other sessions | 8 places only per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets
Running time : 45 minutes. The screenings will be presenting the experimental film Notes on Listening (2024), an audio essay More Than Background (2023) and a series of photography by Raquel Diniz on the making of Notes on Listening.
Notes on Listening is a groundbreaking practice-based research film that captures the essence of people, sound, and place in Peckham, London—a neighbourhood on the brink of cultural displacement due to gentrification. Winner of the prestigious BAFTSS Award (British Association of Film, TV, and Screen Media Studies) in 2024, this experimental documentary employs a unique ‘sensory documentary’ approach. Using sound as the driving force, it immerses viewers in Peckham’s vibrant yet threatened community.
What the judges from BAFTSS had to say:
“The panel agreed that NOTES ON LISTENING is a highly original sound-driven narrative documentary that successfully puts the audience inside the area it explores, Peckham in London. The film skilfully represents the complex and unique soundscape of this London borough, giving a visual and sonic sense of its vivacity and vibrancy. In doing so, it makes a clear case for resisting the impending threats posed by encroaching gentrification. The panel commended the filmmaker’s creative and intricate approach, which provides a vivid evocation of Peckham’s rich cultural life.”
Session One(Solo): 28 June Saturday 6:30pm £8[Cancelled] Session Two(Rie Nakajima x Li Song): 29 June Sunday 4pm £9[4 places left] Session Three(Solo): 29 June Sunday 6:30pm £8[Places available]
12 places each session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets
Duration : 40 minutes
Photo by Fabio Luggage
Photo by Kristof Vrancken
Li Song. Photo by Andrej Chudy
Harappa, in Japanese, means an open, empty, green field.
This two-day event will be a series of happenings, such as performances, conversations and perhaps more, to take place in the open courtyard of Project DIVFUSE.
Rie Nakajima will be joined by Li Song in the earlier performance on Sunday.
Rie Nakajima is a a sculptor living in London. She creates sounds using combination of motorised devices and daily objects. It can be installation or performance. Fusing sculpture and sound, her artistic practice is open to chance and the influence of others. Her first major solo exhibition was held at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also worked with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Association de Le Cyclop (Milly la Forêt), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Donaueschinger Music Festival (Donaueschinger), and Cafe OTO (London). Her collaborators are Pierre Berthet, Angharad Davies, David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, miki yui, hans.w.koch, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop and Akira Sakata.
Dialogues by Sopie Standford (UK) is one of the three sets of work that are selected from DIVFUSE Film Archive Open Call No.1 with a theme on domesticity.
Film Screenings:
Session One 6 June 2025 Friday 7pm Session Two 7 June Saturday 3pm Session Three 7 June Saturday 4:30pm Session Four 7 June Saturday 6pm Session Five 8 June Sunday 3pm Session Six 8 June Sunday 4:30pm
£5 | 8 places only per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets
Running time: 32 minutes. The screenings will be presenting a collection of eight short moving image videos made by Sophie Standford, including:
Dialogue with my Father (2022-2025) Duration: 7’20” Location: Suffolk
What if you can’t allow yourself to let go of something because it reminds you so profoundly of the person who has gone? What if this holding on to the past has become self destructive, to the point where objects are taking over?
Dialogue with my Father explores the inter-generational relationship between father and daughter; grief and loss; the piano that belonged to my father, on which he used to compose. I push the heavy bulk of this domestic, upright instrument around on the concrete floor trying and failing to find it space in the room. Frustration strips the piano of its dignity, tortured and destroyed. Braced, it fights back stoically, belligerent, vibrating a dance to its raucous rumbling, as its dainty wheels twist in agony under its defiant weight. In contrast, the video takes you on a mesmerising journey inside the piano accompanied by a composition that gives voice to its involuntary creeks and resonances.
Dialogue with my Father
Home (2011) Duration: 2’42” Location: London
Home is a performance to camera. It is transparent in its construction: born out of frustration; of playing the role of mother; of confined living space; trapped by domesticity, responsibility and a sense of duty.
***Thank you to everyone who made a submission to this Open Call. Selected work and dates of exhibitions are now up on this website***
With the success of DIVFUSE Sound Archive calling for sound-based work with field recordings elements, we are excited to be launching a new Open Call on short films.
Theme for this first edition : Domesticity
Deadline for submissions : 31 March 2025[Extended]
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE SUBMISSION:
1) Text on the each piece/series (300 words maximum). This shall include the name, year and duration of the work.
2) Artists’ bio (200 words maximum)
3) A link to the work. It could be a link to Vimeo for example but please do not send us the file to download.
4) Send the submission through by email to divfuse@gmail.com on or before 31 March 2025.
OTHER CONDITIONS:
1) Only digital versions are acceptable. Work can be fully digital or video finished Standard 8mm, Super 8 or 16mm films.
2) Only one submission can be made by each artist (or group of artists who work together).
3) The work or series of work shall be between 30 and 45 minutes long and can be made up of different pieces/parts.
4) Selected work will EACH be shown in multiple screening sessions for a weekend (Friday to Sunday) for free between April and June 2025 at Project DIVFUSE micro digital and multi-media art gallery, London. There is no payment to the artists but we will offer the following:
* micro gallery space (4m x 2.8m) for screenings.
* basic equipments for use for the screenings inside the gallery, including 2 x small Genelec speakers on stands, a Genelec subwoofer, a projector and a laptop to play the file(s) from.
* management of the exhibition including invigilating the space and promotion on social media.
5) Artists whose work is selected will have to make sure that the files reach the gallery at least a week before the exhibition. Additional information such as images from the work will also be required for social media posting.
6) If selected, digital files could be transferred over to Project DIVFUSE for use for the screening sessions for this Open Call only.
7) Artists who are based in London will be invited to do two or three sessions of artists talks. Both the screenings and the talk will be ticketed. ALL income from the screenings will go to the space to support the running of the project. Income from the artist’s talk will be split 60/40 between Project DIVFUSE and the artist. Again, this will help to cover some of the overhead costs for running and managing the events.
