Metralla Rosa

Músico | Activista Cultural

• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

Phaxsi Coca fue bautizada por sus padres como Jeanette Rojas al momento de llegar al mundo en su Bolivia natal. Sin embargo, siendo descendientes de una madre Quechua y de un padre Aymara, no le tomo mucho darse cuenta que ella merecía un nombre que abrazara su identidad como embajadora de la cosmovisión andina. Por ello, tras escuchar el llamado de sus ancestros, decididió bautizarse a si misma con el nombre que sentía apoyaría con mayor coherencia sus búsquedas artísticas y sus travesias hacia la reconstrucción de un pasado ancestral que requería ser reivindicado. Hoy por hoy Jeanette es conocida en el mundo como Phaxsi -que en el idioma aymara significa ‘Madre Luna’, y Coca, en homenaje a la hoja de coca, una planta de la región que es símbolo sagrado tradicional de la cultura de los pueblos milenarios andinos. 

Desde muy joven Phaxsi es intérprete de instrumentos de viento tradicionales andinos, tales como los aerófobos de la familia de los Sikus, Quenas, Pinquillos y Tarkas, e incluso yendo en contra de supersticiones populares que mantenían a las mujeres alejadas de estos instrumentos, Phaxsi se especializó en su estudio y constante divulgación a lo largo y ancho del mundo. Fue parte de varias agrupaciones musicales como el Taller Boliviano de Musica Popular Arawi, del grupo de mujeres de música Latinoamericana Warmi y del movimiento cultural de música tradicional Sikuris sin Frontera. En 2002 formó parte del renombrado grupo Bolivia y entre 2003 – 2008 formó parte de instituciones musicales bien establecidas dentro del panorama musical boliviano como la Orquesta Musica de Maestros y Bolivian Jazz, ambos proyectos con estilos muy diferenciados entre sí, que le permitieron consolidar su adaptabilidad como músico invitado, y su evolución y aprendizaje constante como instrumentista de la escena folclórica regional. Sin embargo, el hecho mas trascendental y relevante de su carrera llegó con la creación de la agrupación de mujeres Comunidad Sagrada Coca, de la que fue directora desde su creación en el año 2003 y hasta el 2008. Este agrupación rescató música autóctona Aymara y Quechua con un gran afán investigativo, y replanteó de forma positivamente transgresora el rol de la mujer como intérprete de instrumentos de viento. 

Asentada en Londres desde el 2008 y hasta el presente, Phaxsi es hoy por hoy integrante pilar de la agrupación de fusión de sonidos del mundo Lokandes, de la que su esposo, el conocido y carismático Kanti Qena es también integrante esencial. Por otra parte, también junto a su compañero de vida y de aventuras musicales, Kanti, y a su hijo Raymi – quien al momento de escribir este texto tenía solo once años- conforma la agrupación musical ‘Sagrada Familia’. Su vida privada y su vida pública ofrecen un orgánico homenaje al imperio cultural del cual Phaxsi se sabe heredera, mensajera y reina.

¡Y ahora, disfruten la entrevista!

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Enlaces relacionados
Phaxsi Coca: Instagram | YouTube
Lokandes: Instagram | YouTube

For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Phaxsi, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website

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• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

Born in Nairobi, the London based artist Julie Bloom grew up between Africa, Asia and Europe – or more specifically between Kenya, Hong Kong, Germany and the United Kingdom – and it is this concealed cultural diversity that can be found in both her work and personality, shaping her decidedly eclectic and modern visual language. Being the daughter of an architect and having been nurtured by such varied urban landscapes throughout her life, Julie explores an artistic language that is heavily influenced by the role architecture plays in the lives of those of us who allow ourselves to inhabited by the cities we inhabit.

Parallel to this, Julie tirelessly develops collections of work created with various media. Her body of work contains an incredibly fertile mix of abstract pop paintings and drawings inspired by the graphic language of geometric shapes, as well as prints and lithographs which she creates in limited editions. With a frankly enviable versatility, Julie also allows herself to flirt with figurative representations of iconic characters from the pop world, as can be seen in her series of urban landscapes inhabited by Marilyn Monroe.

An assorted amalgamation of influences in her work reveals a fascinating contrast between her admiration for the urban landscape and her thirst for nature, which is clearly derived from a life of travel and experiences in different parts of the world. In fact, the fusion of her life with her creative experiences can also be seen in her performances and interactions, in which she carries out an unapologetic and covert dialogue with the urban landscape, showing her work precisely where she wants it to be seen in the time honoured fashion of ‘guerrilla art’. In her work Julie not only reveals herself while hiding, but also plays at transforming herself as she dares to push the limits of art and its institutionalised conventions.

One of Julie’s most recent artistic projects are her fantastic Translations – Interactive experiences in which she creates images during a dynamic real-time exchange with her subjects, giving their words and emotions form and colour. Indeed, in this episode of Metralla Rosa you will watch and see the results of Julie’s ‘Translation’ of Carla’s very own stream of consciousness.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Julie Bloom: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Translations: Website | YouTube

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Julie, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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Curadora de Arte

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La potencialidad multifacética de Elena Saraceni no es azarosa. Aunque nació en Argentina, desde muy temprana edad Elena se vió en la nacesidad de lidiar con un ecosistema tan variopinto, como culturalmente estimulante. De hecho, antes de residenciarse en Londres en 2010, Elena transcurrió su niñez y su adolescencia entre Punta del Esta en Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Paris y Caracas. De hecho, quizás se deba a esta feliz circunstancia marcada por continuos procesos de adaptación y dezplazamiento, que sus apegos idiosincráticos sean de una plasticidad asombrosa. Y quizás también gracias a todos estas fracturas con la ilusoria definición de pertenencia que a la mayoría nos condiciona, desde muy temprana edad Elena resuena vocacionalmente con las múltiples esferas del arte contemporáneo.

Comenzó su carrera en el mundo del arte en el 2015 como Fine Art Consultant y como gerente de espacios de galería. Rápidamente pasó a ocuparse del desarrollo de la presencia digital de galerías en  Artsy, una importante plataforma dedicada a la venta de arte. De hecho, tras coordinar el manejo virtual de casi 100 galerías en Europa, India y Estados Unidos, obtuvo una comprensión estratégica de los múltiples aspectos vinculados con el mercado del arte y sus protocolos, convenciones, y manejos políticos tras bastidores, que de otro modo le habría tomado años adquirir. También estuvo involucrada en London Collective brindando asistencias curatoriales privadas a Vortic.art y tuvo la oportunidad de desarrollar iniciativas de naturaleza humanitaria y ecologista dentro de la escena del arte global, como Parley Collective, por la limpieza de los océanos, y Reprieve Colective, por los derechos humanos.

Sin embargo, en materia de curaduría de arte, ningún acierto puede compararse con la satisfacción que para Elena significó concebir y desarrollar Female voices of Latin America: una exhibición virtual que logró convocar, y celebrar, el trabajo de más de 150 mujeres artistas vivas en la región, representadas por más de 60 galerías y museos. Esta ambiciosa exhibición virtual fue inaugurada el Día Internacional de la Mujer, el 8 de marzo del 2021, resultando ser la presentación más grande de artistas femeninas latinoamericanas en la historia. Diecinueve países respondieron a la convocatoria de Female Voices of Latin America, y entre las galerías y museos que participaron se incluyeron el Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO) en Colombia, el Museo Tamayo en México y el Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (MADC) en Costa Rica.

La respuesta de la prensa fue decididamente positiva no solo en Latinoamérica si no también desde importantes tribunas de cobertura informativa internacional como The Financial Times y, gracias a este episodio de Metralla Rosa, descubrirás porque Female Voices of Latin America ha sido para Elena la confirmación de que el arte y las visiones altruistas pueden ir de la mano.

¡Y ahora, disfruten la entrevista!

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Enlaces relacionados
Elena Saraceni: Instagram
Female Voices of Latin America: Website

For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Elena, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website

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• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

With more than two decades of experience as a music producer and DJ, Chris Inperspective, our latest guest for this episode of Metralla Rosa, is the founder of Inperspective Records, Eloisa Records and Black Junglist Alliance.

Thanks to his ongoing stance against racism and his conviction that black artists must work to reclaim the importance of black culture in the history of the western world, Chris has constantly found himself in a position of being able to create musical experimentation and spaces in which the cultivation of quality and innovation are the only priority. With a successful career as an artist on the London Jungle and Drum’n’Bass scene Chris has, for many years, been an active voice within a movement that was born in the early nineties from the hearts and souls of young people living in primarily black and socially marginalised communities on the streets of the English capital. Culturally, these musical movements were responding to the limitations and anger arising from post Thatcher Britain, a spontaneous musical genre that promoted cultural diversity and social unification through dance. It was a musical scene that, with its priority of rhythm over melody and its acknowledgement of a musicality present within its sequences of accelerated breaks, inadvertently brought people together in their desire to positively destabilise the status quo in more ways than one. 

Join us to explore the artistic journey of a DJ who has touched several generations with his music and to see how political and business decisions within major record labels and the music world affect the day to day reality of the international Jungle and Drum’n’Bass scene. In this interview, Chris and Carla discuss, amongst many other things, the lack of representation for black women on the British dance scene, how the necessity for him to self-manage and self-promote led to the creation of the Black Junglist Alliance and how his passion for discovering new and emerging talents has allowed Chris to face the future with optimism and a spring in his step. 

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Chris Inperspective: Instagram
Inperspective Records: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp | Soundcloud
Eloisa Records: Instagram | Facebook | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
Black Junglist Alliance: Instagram | Facebook 

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Chris, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

Adele Brydges’ ceramic creations sit perfectly and harmoniously at the crossroads between tradition and innovation. Her style and artistic projections live in a world that hovers between the tranquil inspiration of classical beauty and a vindictive voice that breaks the rules, whilst voluntarily placing itself in the absolute centre of the eye of a hurricane.

Believing that Art can be therapeutic, pleasure can be healing and sex can be sacred, Adele creates dildos and other erotic toys that are eco-friendly and aesthetically refined, allowing you to explore the art of pleasure through creation. And by learning ancient techniques used to create durable, every day objects and applying them to her pieces made for self pleasure, whilst at the same time staying true to her own tastes and sensual preferences, she has elevated the creation of utilitarian ceramic pieces to a new level.

To be welcomed into one of Adele’s East London workshops is to be invited into her innermost sanctuary, an intimate and sacred space, and the generosity implicit in this inclusive and welcoming gesture creates an immediate sense of gratitude and respect. Whether attending couples workshops, mixed sex workshops, or female – and female identifying – only workshops, your experiences will be enormously liberating, revitalising and healing. They will encourage you to go on a journey that reconnects you with creativity and self-pleasure, whilst helping you recognise that both are intrinsically intertwined and that neither of these life experiences should be seen as a final destination or a specific goal. The pleasure of creating and, in turn, using creation as a means of exploring the erotic self, lies in the journey itself – one of constant and continuous exploration and which is, according to Adele, full of seeds that will readily erupt into flower. It is for this reason that Adele’s stunning pieces are such elegant symbols of power, well-being, worth and beauty that will shamelessly open the doors to pleasure.

Discover, in this interview, the connections between her creations, her childhood and her grandmother, what she feels her most successful collaborations have been and where she feels her future and current challenges lie, in the face of the conservative, patriarchal morality.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Adele Brydges: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Decorate a Dildo workshops: Instagram | Facebook | Bookings

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Adele, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

For more than forty years, Sue Dray has been communicating with her art in many capacities and on many levels – starting as an illustrator for pioneering feminist publications such as Spare Rib and The Women’s Press, both now considered cult magazines and historical treasures, archived and faithfully preserved as study material by The British Library.

Throughout the 1980s, Sue illustrated book covers for renowned authors such as Fay Weldon and Margaret Atwood, put her talents to use illustrating cookbooks and magazines such as Gay News and Gai Pied, completed a master’s degree in art that led to her teaching at universities in the United States and produced some of her most personal work, inspired by her two young daughters. She has since drawn live alongside the catwalk during shows by designers such as Pam Hogg, Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes, illustrated behind the scenes for Andrew Logan‘s Alternative Miss World and appeared drawing backstage during the 2018 film 'Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist'. Her style is a combination of strong lines, painterly textures and intense, contrasting colours. Yet, despite her constant search for evolution and change, these characteristics of her artistic language have remained intact since the beginnings of her prolific career, during the golden eighties.

Today Sue is regularly commissioned by magazines and designers for the drawings and sketches she creates during the unveiling of collections in all the major fashion capitals, throughout fashion season. In 2018 she was Fashion Scout‘s first resident artist for the Spring/Summer collection of London Fashion Week, during which we could see her standing in a sea of surrealism at her elegant easel, a mouth full of paintbrushes, surrounded by throngs of press photographers, all competing with her for the best images from each collection. Following an approach by Apple in 2015, she has also found time to experiment with digital drawing – a medium she has come to appreciate when working under the hectic conditions of fashion shows. 

Last but not least, it is impossible to ignore the extent of her teaching experience: Sue has taught in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States and was, for eight years, course leader of the Fashion Illustration Course at The London College of Fashion. She continues to contribute to this renowned institution as a guest lecturer, nurturing future generations of fashion artists with her vibrant teaching style and a faith in the arts that exudes life, spontaneity, authenticity and innovation.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Sue Dray: Website | Instagram

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Sue, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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Músico | Cantante | Sanadora

• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

No cualquiera puede darse el lujo de tener un oido musical y una voz privilegiados, 21 hermanos, una familia excepcionalmente estimulante, y contar con la fortuna de ser de Lara, probablemente el estado mas prolífico desde el punto de vista musical de toda Venezuela. Originaria de Sanare, un pueblo en las montañas del estado Lara, considerado cuna del Tamunangue – una celebración devocional que incluye música en vivo, canto y baile- gracias a su precoz iniciación musical, Luzmira Zerpa desde muy temprana edad es considera reina del Tamunangue. 

Hoy por hoy Luzmira es una cantautora de voz potente, de formidable presencia escénica y de fama y reconocimiento internacional. Le ha dado prácticamente la vuelta al globo terráqueo con su cuatro, y compartiendo su sensacional voz sin mezquindades, ni divismos, ni recelos. El mismísimo Manu Chao la invito a tocar junto a él después de escucharla cantar en el desierto, en un festival en Sahara Occidental, confirmándole que tenía una voz imposible de ignorar. 

Con su agrupación Family Atlantica se presentó en un sin numero de escenarios internacionales, y grabó un par de álbumes que fusionan el folclore venezolano con sonidos del mundo europeo y africanos, tradicionales y contemporáneos. Estas grabaciones recibieron una excelente acogida por parte del público y de la crítica especializada. 

Luzmira es madre, es hija, es hermana latinoamericana, es una mujer incansable desde el punto de vista artístico, pero sobre todo es músico en mayúsculas. Su interés por las raíces sonoras de su país natal, Venezuela, la han hecho urgar incansablemente en la trascendencia universal de ritmos y sonidos de la Venezuela profunda – como el Tamunangue – y en la importancia de conquistar audiencias globales sin renunciar a su expresión auténtica. 

Descubre gracias a este episodio como Luzmira se ha convertido en la reina del folclore venezolano en Europa, y por que viajar de su pueblo natal directo a Londres fue lo mejor que pudo haberle sucedido al público de este lado del Atlántico.

¡Y ahora, disfruten la entrevista! 

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Enlaces relacionados:
Luzmira Zerpa:  Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter
Family Atlántica: Soundway Records | YouTube | Bandcamp | Facebook

For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Luzmira, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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Artist

• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

Visions of perfectly proportioned giant women, sitting amongst skyscrapers with red nails and fabulous platforms or walking through the night with glam punk hairstyles and faces made up in scandalous colours. Women without ethnicity, holding flowers that are daggers, fiercely dressed or proudly nude – sometimes with penis and testicles. Her painted protagonists are anonymous legends, rock stars and futuristic warriors – all visions of a controversial universe exuding pop art fantasies and Rock and Roll attitudes, whilst inhabiting the pictorial ecosystems that Susan Diamond has created from glimpses reflected back at her in the mirrors through which she lives her life – a life full of risk and adventure.

Susan’s paintings – and subsequent limited edition prints of the paintings – are large format and high impact. They inevitably contain subliminal messages that, intentionally or not, seem designed to simultaneously awaken the troublemaker and the philosopher that lie within us all, awaiting patiently for some unexpected stimulus. Born in Montgomery, Massachusetts to a Polish father and Russian mother, Susan studied Fashion Illustration at the Boston School of Fashion and, shortly after, decided to travel around Europe before eventually settling in London, where she met Mark Charles who is, to this day, her accomplice in love and her closest creative ally. After years of dedicating herself to both music (with the rebellious electro-noise band Gobsausage) and fashion (with the highly successful glam-punk brand, Charles of London), Susan has returned, and is fully dedicated to, her former love of painting.

This episode is a walk through the life and work of an explosively creative mind, a colourful journey through the experiences of an artist who has lived a career full of adventure and fascinating stories, and through which you will be lovingly guided by Metralla Rosa.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Susan Diamond: Website | Instagram
Charles of London: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Susan, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website.

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Actor | Writer | Director

• You can also watch this episode on Youtube where English, Italian and Spanish subtitles are available or visit the Metralla Rosa website for more details.

To sit in front of a young woman, full of energy and plans for the future and who has, at the same time, already achieved so much artistically and creatively, is incredibly inspiring. Gaël Le Cornec – our guest for this episode of Metralla Rosa – is a multi award wining actress, a tireless creator of dreams and a storyteller who places the value of good narrative above all else. Gaël creates works that use the immediacy and intimacy of theatre to delve into people’s stories and memories in order to explore themes such as gender, migration, displacement and stereotypes.

Born in the Amazon, in northern Brazil, Gaël is a writer, director and actress who moved to London at a young age, having already qualified with a degree in environmental biology. Once in London she did a masters in cultural studies and took a course that used theatre to teach English, thereby igniting her vocation as a storyteller and her desire to create in order to bring communities together with her art, which was often developed in close collaboration with organisations dedicated to defending the rights of women, young adults and migrants.

Skilled in the art of the monologue and widely recognised in London for her success as a one-woman-show, Gaël has not only played Frida Kahlo, Camille Claudel and Ana Mendieta, but also every female immigrant whose voice has been unjustly silenced. Despite her self-sufficiency as an artist and creator, Gaël’s strength lies in building alliances with other actors, activists and theatre companies and proudly assumes the mantle of representative to the community of Latin American migrants in the UK who fight against stereotypes that restrict, limit and pigeonhole us. The many obstacles she has come up against have only served to reinforce her need to develop her own theatrical style and defend her voice – and message – through thick and thin. Today Gaël continues to create a dignified reputation for herself within the world of international theatre and juggles to act, write and direct, whilst at the same time pass on the valuable lessons she has learned and which she knows she can translate into invaluable and constructive inspiration for future generations.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
Gaël Le Cornec: Website | Instagram | Spotlight | Vimeo
Footprint Productions: Website | Instagram

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Gaël, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website

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DJ | Music Promoter | Events Producer

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Latin American music owes a large part of its diffusion, promotion and continuous celebration within London to Callum Simpson. Mostly known as Dj Cal Jader, he has been the driving force behind the emotions and very existence of Movimientos – a project created with two clear and distinctive intentions: To offer spaces for fun, dancing and joyful recreation and to create political resistance out of the cultural reaffirmation of diversity and differences.

Emma Goldman, the well known anarchist and writer, once said ‘If I can’t dance to it, it is not my revolution’ and it is almost as if this has served as the inspiration for Movimientos’ creation of its solid artistic agenda, in which the right to be different is a fundamental part of its fight against the homogenisation of predominant cultures. Movimientos, in addition to being the most active and productive non-profit organisation dedicated to the creation of Latin American music events in the United Kingdom, is also the most interesting because it combines club culture with the promotion of the live music. Movimientos has, for years, offered support to emerging Latin American talent seeking exposure within London, while offering the more established names the opportunity to connect with British audiences by performing in the English capital.

Listen to this entertaining conversation in order to discover how a political student from the north of England and with Scottish roots ended up in love with Latin American music after taking an interest in South America’s political movements of the 20th century. Also discover what it has been like to co-produce Love Carnival, probably the best known and most fiery tropical party in the city, playing the musical fusions so loved by Cal. And finally, discover what it feels like to be a leading light of the scene he has embraced with his brotherly and multi-rhythmic beat, giving the Latin American diaspora his loyal support as well as his absolute commitment.

And now, enjoy the interview!

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Related Links
DJ Cal Jader: Instagram | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Facebook
Love Carnival: Instagram | Soundcloud | Facebook
Movimientos: Website | YouTube | Instagram | Bandcamp | Soundcloud  | Facebook

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For further information about this interview, including links to anything mentioned by Cal, or to continue reading this text in Spanish, English and Italian, visit the Metralla Rosa website

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