Ventura Profana × FLEE with Anderson do Paraiso

In September 2026, curated by Vanessa Cimorelli, La Becque welcomed Brazilian artist and former resident Ventura Profana and independent publishing and curatorial platform FLEE Project for a week-long residency exploring the relationships between music, spirituality, archives, and collective transmission. On September 12, the residency culminated in a public program of conversations, listening sessions, and performances, featuring Ventura Profana and Brazilian DJ and producer Anderson do Paraiso.

The residency took as its starting point FLEE Project’s publication Candomblé: Sacred Rhythms in Brazil, a bilingual book and double vinyl dedicated to Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition in which music, rhythm, dance, and ritual play a central role. Bringing together archival recordings from the Ilê Axé Opô Aganjú terreiro in Salvador, newly commissioned musical works, critical essays, and previously unpublished photographs by Pierre Verger, the publication approaches Candomblé as a living tradition shaped by ritual practice, artistic creation, and cultural circulation.

The public program brought together a conference, a presentation of the publication accompanied by a listening session, a performance by Ventura Profana, and a closing DJ set by Anderson do Paraiso. Moving between editorial research, music, and collective celebration, the event explored different forms of cultural and spiritual transmission.

Based in Rio de Janeiro, Ventura Profana is a singer, composer, writer, visual artist, and self-described missionary pastor whose practice examines the implications of evangelization and the spread of neo-Pentecostal churches in Brazil and beyond. Through her work, she envisions the multiplication and abundance of Black and trans lives.

Based in Belo Horizonte, Anderson do Paraiso is a DJ and producer associated with the city’s distinctive Funk BH sound. His productions slow down the genre’s frenetic rhythms into sparse, atmospheric compositions, combining electronic sounds, orchestral elements, silence, and reverb.

Founded by Olivier Duport, Alan Marzo, and Carl Åhnebrink, FLEE is an independent publishing house, record label, and curatorial platform dedicated to documenting and reappraising hybrid cultures. Its publications and projects bring together ethnomusicology, documentary research, and contemporary sound creation while questioning conventional notions of cultural authenticity.