Stas Shärifullá (RU, 1984)
Residency period: September-November 2026
Stas Shärifullá, also known as HMOT, is a Basel-based researcher, Indigenous rights activist, and sound artist, born and raised in East Siberia. His practice draws on the auditory traditions of Turkic cultures, where listening has historically been valued over writing. It unfolds on two levels: studying how instrumental music, spoken literature, improvisation, and communal practices have endured colonization and genocide; and exploring how these forms might be resynthesized beyond resentment, essentialism, or nationalism. Rejecting the divide between modern technologies and so-called “traditional” forms, Shärifullá connects past practices to the present, treating them not as static artefacts but as living tools for community-building, cultural revitalization, and political imagination.
His works have been presented internationally at Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg), Fondation Beyeler (Basel), Volksbühne, CTM Festival, and Berghain (Berlin), Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice), and Unsound Festival (Kazan), among others.
During his residency at La Becque, Stas Shärifullá will explore the making of the quray, the traditional Bashqort flute, by combining 3D printing, woodworking, and alternative materials found around Lake Geneva. The project will culminate in a workshop that links instrument-making to decolonial and critical frameworks, addressing questions of remoteness, cultural engagement, and the disconnect between Western notions of decoloniality and Indigenous realities. Participants will be invited to reimagine the quray through computer music techniques and to reflect on the symbolic role of the wind across cultures and its colonial entanglements, transforming the act of crafting the instrument into a space for dialogue and cultural renewal.
Stas Shärifullá, photo Philippe Gerlach