Fili 周 GibbonsSteps of Yu
© Fili 周 Gibbons. Photo : Nav Pall
In partnership with Festival Accès Asie
Public Presentation on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 2 pm and 3:30 pm
Steps of Yu is a sound tapestry and ritual performance based on the semi-mythological account of the ‘Great Flood’ of Ancient China. The artist combines cello, voice, and body performance, in a quadraphonic installation.
Early Chinese historians described the Great Flood as an intense period of ecological catastrophe, displacement and famine dated to 2200 – 2300 BCE. Though this event predates Chinese nationhood, ‘China’ has always been a land defined by a maze of rivers and water. This geography later became associated to a 9-section grid known as the 洛書 luoshu, a symbolic representation of cosmological space and inner/outer worlds.
The Steps of Yu refers to a symbolic path walked through the luoshu by culture hero 大禹 ‘Great Yu’ who was able to stem the flooding by promoting coordinated cooperation of early ‘Chinese’ peoples. Drawing loosely on this narrative, Steps of Yu will offer a space for reflection on ancestry, cultural flux, and resilience through a woven sequence of soundscapes, field recordings, embodied performance, and music. Spoken commentary in French, English, and Mandarin.
“Like endless boiling water, the flood is pouring forth destruction. Boundless and overwhelming, it overtops hills and mountains” — 史記 Shiji
© Fili 周 Gibbons. Photo : Nav Pall
Fili 周 Gibbons (we/they) are a musician and sound engineer of mixed Chinese and Canadian ancestry based in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal. Their artistic practice is a synthesis of cello performance, audio creation, embodiment, and traditional memory systems — employing these as potencies for the expression of plural identities, and the transmission of cultural memory. Drawing from many years of practice in cello performance, improvisation and audio production, they frequently collaborate across genres with artists from Canada and abroad (Devon Bate, Paloma Dawkins, Yaya Diallo, Rajni Shah). Deepening their connection to sound further through recording studies (M. Mus, McGill University), they continue to explore audio practice through interdisciplinary collaborations, and community-oriented sound projects.
