Embodied Archives will welcome Swiss musician and artist Mehmet Aslan to Nairobi for a collaborative creation with award-winning multi-disciplinary artist Jim Chuchu, under the umbrella of Kilele 26. Together, they will explore the body as both an evolutionary archive and a site of universal human truth. Through sound, voice, movement, and collective performance, the project investigates embodied memory across cultures, challenging divisive ideologies and offering new ways of sensing connection

The collaboration will take the form of a residency in the week prior to Kilele, and as a performance at the event.

Mehmet Alsan

Born and raised in Basel, Switzerland to a Turkish immigrant family and lives between Basel and Berlin. Mehmet Aslan has been driven by questions related to the fluidity of his own post‑migrant identity since his breakthrough EP, ‘Mechanical Turk’, was released on Glasgow’s Huntleys + Palmers in 2014. The subsequent years have seen Aslan grow as an artist as he interrogated the answers to these questions through music production & live performance, DJing and graphic design, leading to 2022’s debut studio album, ‘The Sun Is Parallel’.

The album also featured contributions from Italian percussionist & composer Valentina Magaletti, Spanish composer Niño de Elche and Mehmet Aslan live band members Alican Tezer (drums) and Daniel Pankau (guitar). Mehmet is a Producer, Dj, and Graphic Designer and Live Performer.

Jim Chuchu

Jim Chuchu is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans music, film, photography, and the visual arts. Chuchu's artistic journey is marked by the exploration of identity, culture, and the complexities of the African experience. Full bio here. Chuchu's current projects reflect his continued exploration of diverse mediums and themes. He currently serves as Creative Director for African in the Anthropocene, a multimedia project examining how communities across Africa experience and respond to climate change. He is also co-producing Fight for Food, a documentary exploring food production in Kenya, while developing new experimental design work and his second feature film project.

This project is supported by the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg.