Alyson Sillon (FR)

Through embodied research and a collaborative approach to knowledge-making, Alyson Sillon has developed a multidisciplinary practice inspired by the mythological potential of counter-cultural movements. She explores the contemporary world of techno, confronting its Black and queer origins through immersive installations that bring together hybrid symbolic language, performance, and multisensory interventions.

Her project Before/After, seen currently in a site-specific form in Het HEM’s exhibition Sweet Harmony (2 Sept-30 Oct 2022), is a ‘temple’ that invites visitors to achieve a peaceful meditative state within the context of a techno party. The work was developed through and activated by what Sillon calls a “Kemetic Techno ceremony”, a performance built on meditation, a warm-up routine (designed with the wellness trainer Lisa Tabord), and techno dance. Sillon’s symbolic language refers to Egyptian mythology and hieroglyphics to create a contemporary mythology that affirms the Black origins of techno music. Sillon’s rites not only choreograph a cycle of individual transformation; they expose techno as a mode of communal alignment and resistance.

Sillon continued to explore her spiritual and corporal relationship with warehouse parties through the development of a DJ practice as Ypsillon. Her dj sets are constructed as an evolutive sound journey that always leads to a corrosive and intense Techno beat.