October 21, 2023
2954 West 4th Ave
7:00PM — late
Welcome by Manuel Axel-Strain
Performance by Chaos Emblematic
Housewarming party ft. fermented cocktails designed by Sahba Sadeghian
**Please arrive at 7PM if you’d like to grab a drink and say hello before the performance
Event is free and open to the public (we will be accepting donations to support U/P)
Accessibility Notes
After 3 years of remote operations, we are celebrating our new move with UNIT/PITT’s first public event in our new gallery location—a milestone in our nearly 50-year history in the city. We are grateful to Manuel Axel Strain who will be providing a welcome for UNIT/PITT on behalf of their Musqueam family members, marking this new chapter for our organization, which now operates in Kitsilano near places named sk̀ʷəyəẁs and ťθəmťθaməls.
Following the performance by Chaos, we welcome everyone to join us for a housewarming party. Expect garden-inspired cocktails and special fermentations designed by Sahba Sadeghian.
Chaos Emblematic is an art collective producing events, performance, film, imagery, music, dance and metaphysical happenings in Berlin, Germany and Vancouver; the unceded indigenous land belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō (Stolo), and Səl̓ílwəta/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The evolving roster of artists involved with Chaos come together from around the globe to cultivate chaotic creative endeavours and vibrant immersive experiences.
Since its inception in 2020, Chaos has been collaborating with artists from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Perú, The Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Ukraine, United Kingdom & the United States. They are interested in how visuality, sound, movement and culture overlaps to create new and unified forms of expression. Their work directly engages with spirituality and dream, and deeply values each individual artist’s vision and contribution.
Performers
James-Amzin Nahirnick is a contemporary dancer, tap dancer and improviser from Vancouver Island, BC, grateful to be born and based on stolen native land. James-Amzin’s aim in dance is to materialize the internal preposterousness. James-Amzin views dance as one of the last socially acceptable bastions of modern magical practice. He grew up performing in community theater and dance competitions, training in dance for the last 15 years as well as teaching contemporary and tap dance since 2018. He is a 2020 graduate of Modus Operandi Contemporary dance training program under the direction of David Raymond, Tiffany Tregarthen, and Kate Franklin. James-Amzin has been a guest tap dancer with Baby Face Brass, toured with Jenn Edwards’ & Jennifer Aoki’s ‘The Body Orchestra, danced In the Pina Bausch Nelken Line project organized by Paras Terezakis’ Kinesis Dance Somatheatro and danced with Company 605 in ‘Looping’, a three hour, in the round, improvised contemporary dance installation. For James-Amzin, dance is the materialized and shareable aspect of his spiritual practice that aims to elucidate the internal landscape.
Masha Scherbyna is a Ukrainian-born dance artist and entrepreneur from Vancouver, Canada, now living in Berlin, Germany. She graduated from Canada’s National Ballet School in 2016, where she received the Peter Dwyer Award for Excellence in Dance in her final year. She spent a year training and performing with the San Francisco Ballet School and Company until 2017. Throughout her dance education and professional experience, Masha has worked with Peggy Baker, Peter Bingham, Sorella Englund, Joysanne Sidimus, Kevin Haigen, Patrick Armand, Ernst Meisner, and performed works by John Neumier, George Balanchine, William Forsyth and various other classical works. Most recently, Masha completed the scholarship program at EDAM for Contact Improvisation under the direction of Peter Bingham in April 2023 Masha is interested in closing the gap between the accessibility to create and pursue art and the resources available to do so for artists.
Rachel Helten is a dance artist, choreographer, teacher and interdisciplinary creator based on the unceded indigenous land belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō (Stolo), and Səl̓ílwəta/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. (Vancouver, B.C.). She has a BFA in dance from Simon Fraser University. She has had the honour of collaborating with a diverse range of artists and her work has been presented at various venues around the lower mainland and internationally. The cornerstones of Rachel’s practice are found in deep listening, collaboration, interdisciplinary methods and unearthing the stories that live within our bodies. She desires to honour our diversity, oneness, history and the poetry of nature through her work.
Britt Angus is a performer, choreographer, filmmaker, visual artist and producer of events in both Berlin and her home city Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory. Their work draws upon the complexities and rhythms of the natural world, in conjunction with the imagination’s fluxuating states of sensationality and being. As a choreographer she explores subconscious character, playing with particular subtleties and layers of mind and body. Her work is focused on the physical, dynamic and rapidly evolving attributes of human nature. Multilinguality and extensive travel have afforded her work with an organic and sensitive synthesis of culture, language, dance and community. She has been Artistic Director of Chaos Emblematic from 2020.
Musicians
Mauro Fernandez von Waldenburg is a Canadian-Cuban musician, music producer, multi-instrumentalist and performer. Originally hailing from New York City, he has also performed and made work in Vancouver, Berlin and Barcelona. Mauro’s sound explores several genres and is heavily influenced by the analogue recordings of the 1960s/70s. He continues to experiment with blending different styles from psychedelic rock and blues to jazz. As a producer Mauro is exploring production techniques, constantly on a quest for something innovative and exciting. He is interested in using his knowledge of music production and composition to work with live performance and film, creating unique soundscapes. As well as being versed in the realms of music, Mauro dances and is interested in pushing the boundaries of what is dance and what is music.
Thiago Franzim is a Brazilian musician and researcher based in Berlin. His artistic approach comprehends his work as a guitarist, composer and researcher in the field of sound/radio art and music education. The core of his work is an investigation in the use of the absurd, strangeness and comedy in the realm of rock n’roll. During his music degree in Brazil, Thiago carried out research about the use of radio as a creative platform, working with independent Brazilian radio collectives developing workshops, creating audio documentaries and performances based on sound collage. Since 2012 Thiago has worked as a guitarist and composer in different bands and projects, touring around Brazil, United States and Europe. His creative output could also be represented with the phonographic releases of his bands, that range between psychedelic progressive rock and metal records.
