Brandon Covington Sam-Sumana

Residency report
Principal Residency Program — 2020
Covington’s work is characterised by a juxtaposition of different layers of knowledge and references, seemingly unrelated at first glance, to create installations, sound pieces and proposals that resonate with each other.

At La Becque, they continued their research, enshrined in the installation YOU AND SEUSS IN THE PLAYHOUSE AT THE ABRACADABRA FACTORY or On The Cooking of People, featured at Les Urbaines in December 2018. This work invited us to reflect on the consequences of the Westphalian peace treaties, which laid the foundations for the concept of nation states and consolidated Switzerland’s position of neutrality in the 17th century.

By developing a set of new sound devices entitled SYZYGY at La Becque, Covington continues to address processes of political and financial abstraction, put into perspective with the human costs and precariousness inflicted on racialised communities. During their residency, they also performed for the public opening of the artists’ studios in La Becque in March 2020.

Residency report
Eyebeam Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future (Phase 1) — 2020
For Rapid Response Phase 1, B. Covington Sam-Sumana researched the creation of a new type of award process that does not rely upon the surveillance and visibility of its recipients typical of many capital awards. The New Millennium Almanac 2020 Micro-Prize is a micro grant program initiated by the artist as an alternative to pre-existing models and includes a granting program, as well as a short manifesto-style treatise, originally developed while in residence at La Becque. Awardees will range from those across arts, media, sci-tech, and agriculture related inter-disciplines.

Biography
Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Brandon Covington Sam-Sumana interrogates matters related to currency, transience, information circuits and system metabolism. Their investigations have spawned music, performance and text projects, objects of generative design, and forays into speculative finance, video and visual art. Their works have featured at the ICA and the Tate Modern in London, the New Museum in New York and the Atlanta Contemporary, as well as LesUrbaines in Lausanne.