THE KING OF TIMBILA - an audiovisual installation by the Austrian artists WERNER PUNTIGAM (photography & space) and KLAUS HOLLINETZ (soundscapes & poetry) dedicated to the master and music legend VENÂNCIO MBANDE (1933-2015) from Mozambique, presented at 'Chef d'Oeuvre' in Osaka (J) June 17-22, 2019.
Werner Puntigam and Klaus Hollinetz met the timbila master Venâncio Mbande for the first time in 1998 at a cultural exchange tour with the Austrian ARGEZIM association in Mozambique. Fascinated by the amazing and powerful sound of the handmade timbilas that Mbande and his orchestra 'Timbila ta Venâncio' played virtuoso, the two artists started immediately to document the live performances. Puntigam by photographing (as later as well at several further meetings with Mbande during his regularely artist residencies in Mozambique) and Hollinetz by doing audio recordings. Out of those documentary materials they created their audiovisual installation THE KING OF TIMBILA as a tribute to Venâncio Mbande after he passed away. Presentations so far in Mozambique (Inhambane and Maputo, July 2016), Japan (Osaka and Okinawa, June 2019) and Austria (Linz, July/August 2019).
All images of this series "inter.views/venâncio" - captured in Zavala 1998/2007 and Maputo 2000/2008/2009 - edited for the exhibition prints and slide show in 2016 by Werner Puntigam / pntgm EAR X EYE.
The electro-acousticly modified "First Timbila Dream" soundscapes (cut sample in this trailer) - based on live recordings of Venâncio Mbande & 'Timbila ta Venâncio' at Venâncio's home in Zavala at early morning on May 31, 1998 - were edited in 2016 by Klaus Hollinetz / WMD6C with ECM909.
