Mizizi Ensemble

Mizizi (meaning “roots” in swahili) Ensemble is an interdisciplinary artist collective transforming sounds, movement, visuals and technology into visceral, site-driven performances. Drawing on a wide artistic vocabulary – from contemporary dance and club music to bespoke instrument design, live-coding, classical music, film scoring and traditional Kenyan music – they’ve established a practice built on trust, curiosity and freedom to experiment without fear of failure. Their work emerges from collaborative processes where individual voices collide and get amplified through the collective, absorbing both the political and cultural charge and physical properties of the performance space.

Mizizi was founded in tandem with the inaugral edition of Kilele in 2024 and embodies the festival’s core values of collaboration and exchange through artistic practice. The ensemble was initiated as part of “Études for Live Electronics”; a FWF-PEEK-funded artistic research project led by Alex Hofmann (https://iwk.mdw.ac.at/hofmann/peek-etudes/) which ran from 2022 through 20255.

Mizizi Ensemble for Kilele 2026 features Labdi Ommes (KE), [Monrhea] (KE), Nyokabi Kariũki (KE), Bernt Isak Wærstad (NO) and Jane Arnison (AU).