On Saturday, September 12, La Becque, FLEE Project and Brazilian artist and former resident Ventura Profana invite the public to an afternoon and evening of conversations, listening sessions and performances, concluding a week-long residency exploring the relationships between music, spirituality, archives and collective transmission.
The residency takes as its starting point FLEE Project’s recent publication Candomblé: Sacred Rhythms in Brazil, a bilingual book and double vinyl dedicated to Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition rooted in African spiritual practices, in which music, rhythm, dance and ritual play a central role.
Bringing together rare archival recordings from the Ilê Axé Opô Aganjú terreiro in Salvador, newly commissioned works by contemporary musicians, critical essays and previously unpublished photographs by Pierre Verger, the publication approaches Candomblé not as a fixed cultural heritage, but as a living tradition continuously transformed through ritual practice, artistic creation, migration and circulation.
The week culminates in a public programme bringing together a presentation of Candomblé: Sacred Rhythms of Brazil, a listening session, a performance by Ventura Profana and a DJ set by Anderson do Paraiso. Throughout the evening, publishing, performance and celebration intersect, creating a space for contemporary artistic practices, editorial research and Afro-Brazilian cosmologies to meet while engaging with questions of transmission, authority and cultural circulation.
5:00 pm Roundtable discussion
6:00 pm FLEE publication presentation + listening session
7:30 pm Ventura Profana & Santiago Latorre (performance)
9:00 pm Anderson do Paraiso (DJ set)
11:00 pm Doors close
Based in Rio de Janeiro, Ventura Profana describes herself as the daughter of the mysterious bowels of Mother Bahia. In her artistic practice, she prophesizes the multiplication and abundance of Black and trans lives. Indoctrinated in Baptist temples, she is a missionary pastor, singer, writer, composer, and visual artist, whose work is rooted in research into the implications and methodologies of evangelization from the Abrahamic religion in Brazil and beyond, through the spread of neo-Pentecostal churches.
Based in Belo Horizonte, Anderson do Paraiso is a DJ and producer and one of the key figures behind the city’s distinctive Funk BH sound. Emerging from the local baile funk scene, his music takes an unorthodox approach to the genre’s typically frenetic energy, slowing it down into sparse, atmospheric and often haunting compositions. Combining electronic elements with orchestral instrumentation, silence and reverb, his productions create a cinematic tension that has helped shape a new generation of Brazilian funk while expanding the possibilities of the dancefloor.
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. Taking a critical, informed stance on what gets defined as “authentic” heritage, the platform produces book-record objects at the crossroads of ethnomusicology, documentary research, and sound creation, and organizes exhibitions and residencies internationally.