HitStories - Lara Dâmaso — Exercice in random laments
(2021)

HitStories is a programme of performative events and workshops curated by flight of fancy and taking place at HIT, a Geneva-based art space, between May 2021 and May 2022. Each episode of HitStories highlights, over a few days, the practice of an artist at HIT. Events (conversations, workshops, etc.) aimed at deepening the research carried out by the artists accompany their performative intervention. For HitStories, Lara Dâmaso pursues her exploration of the/her voice’s communicative, therapeutic and political potential when used irrationally, dissonantly, uncontrollably and unintentionally in relation to the/her body’s movements. She establishes a connection between the movement of the voice (singing) and the movement of the body (dancing), both emitting vibrations that generate a dialogue between the physical, emotional body and the environment in which this body moves. At HIT, Lara Dâmaso showed a structured dance and vocal improvisation performance that continued to inhabit the exhibition space as an audio installation throughout the duration of her intervention, from July 1 to 4. To further explore the potential of the voice, Lara Dâmaso invited Colin Self to run a Xoir workshop. Xoir is a non-utilitarian vocal workshop led by Colin Self focused on alternative modalities of group singing. Rooted in somatic research and experimentation, the goal of Xoir is to foster a generative environment for individuals to connect with voice and vocality on an individual and collective level. Xoir is open to anyone interested in exploring their voice as a tool for learning or re-posturing a new relationship to singing and listening. Colin Self composes and choreographs music, performance, and environments for expanding consciousness, troubling binaries and boundaries of perception and communication. THey work with communities across disciplines and practices, using voices, bodies, and computers as tools to interface with biological and technological software. HitStories is supported by Pro Helvetia, la Loterie Romande, la Ville de Genève, la fondation Leenaards, le Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, DCS, Genève and la Fondation du Jubilé de la Mobilière Suisse Société Coopérative.