Biography
The journey of a life
Exhibitions, Installations, Performances, Movies, Workshops.
Everything in Sisygambis’s artistic approach operates in an extension of multimedia art through exploring, new encounters and sharing, creating while developing new boundaries between traditions and technology. Willing to associate numeric arts with worldwide traditional cultures, Christine Coulange and Nchan Manoyan founded Sisygambis in 1989. Travelling from one country to another, the duo of video directors/musicians collect songs and musics, document rituals, but also gather testimonies and the day-to-day practices of the people that cross their paths.
Since 2009 and the passing of Nchan Manoyan, Christine Coulange has been the artistic director of Sisygambis and the adventure goes on with her collaborators. Along the Silk Road, she develops From the Mediterranean sea to the Indian ocean, a multi and transmedia project which explores several forms of techniques and interactions (video & music immersive installations, exhibitions, performances, interactive webdocumentaries…)
Nowadays in the South
Sisygambis now heads south, collaborating with Louvre Abu Dhabi on the great exhibition Roads of Arabia, with the Institut du monde arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris - the development of the webdocumentary Ports, from the Mediterranean sea to the Indian ocean, and the showing of 4 short films in the exhibition Seafaring Adventurers, an Arab World Institute and the MUCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations) in Marseille co-production.
Since Autumn 2016, Christine Coulange - Sisygambis has also been in a 3-years residency in Mayotte, thanks to the support of the french Head of Cultural Affairs of the island, pairing the webdocumentary to a collaborative multilingual platform project that includes the regional overseas languages. The prototype was exhibited in october 2016 at the Humanisme Numérique symposium in Paris and at the European Heritage Days in Mayotte.
The documentary short and the workshop La Couleur des Mots were also shown at the National Theater La Criée in Marseille for the grand opening of the Printemps de la Francophonie. In 2015, the Vivid Festival in Sydney and Melbourne came bursting in on big screens, in the city centers, and People from the Indian ocean, a concentrate of 6mn of rare images shot in 15 years time on the Silk road and the Indian ocean.
The same year, the multimedia exhibition J’irai jusqu’à Zanzibar (I will go all the way to Zanzibar) is presented and embedded to the permanent collection of the Rimbaud Museum in Charleville-Mézières.
In 2013, during the MP 2013 Event (Marseille-Provence Cultural Capital of 2013), the first creations born from 7 years of researches on the Silk Road emerge at the Villa Méditerranée and at the Friche Belle de mai, in Marseille.
Along the Silk Road
Video makers, music composers, Nchan Manoyan and Christine Coulange go on expeditions, always further, to the East, through wars and prohibitions, from Marseille to Shanghai. As a testimony, they create, and leave their pieces of arts in several festivals and events : Nemo at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Festival international du film in La Rochelle, 38e rugissants in Grenoble, Les Musiques / GMEM in Marseille.
In 2005, Sisygambis won the Mobius France price for multimedia creation for its installation Rencontres Virtuelles sur la route de la soie (Virtual encounters on the silk road)
Christine Coulange works with a worldwide network of artists, and the creations of Sisygambis are to be programmed in numerous festivals and museums, in France and abroad. She knows that this life journey draws it strength from the political and artistic determination Nchan Manoyan and herself have lived on and developed altogether, starting before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, during their wild concerts in the cold eastern lands.
Key dates
Some key dates, festivals, museums and events that have hosted Sisygambis creations in recent years :
2021-2024
Mucem - Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille : installation Les gestes de la transformation du blé for the permanent exhibition Le Grand Mezzé (5 screens with sound diffusion).
2023
Launch of the webdocumentary : Les Routes de la Transe, at the Friche la Belle de Mai and the University of Mayotte.
Le Kerveguen, La Réunion : Les Rythmes de la Transe, video-musical performance.
Friche la Belle de Mai 1992 - 1995, film based on Sisygambis archives.
2022
6MIC, Aix en Provence: new creation Les Rythmes de la Transe, residency, video-musical performance with multiple video projection and multiple sound diffusion (3 screens - 12 sound diffusion points).
2021
Festival Milatsika, Mayotte and Léspas St Paul, La Réunion Les Rythmes de la Transe, video-musical performance (1 screen - 6 sound diffusion points).
2019-2023
Université de Mayotte : partnership for the development of the Traversées project of traveling and local masterclass.
2018-2019
Louvre Abu Dhabi : audiovisual and multimedia components for the Routes of Arabia exhibition.
MuMa-Musée de Mayotte : first audio guide to Mayotte, Le Rocher de Dzaoudzi.
2016-2018
Christine Coulange in artistic creation residency in Mayotte.
2016-2017
Institut du Monde Arabe and Mucem : Exhibition Adventurers of the seas and webdocumentary Ports, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
2016
Colloque Humanisme numérique, Paris : creations around the Routes of Trance.
European Heritage Days, Mayotte: Trance Roads creations.
Printemps de la Francophonie, Théâtre National La Criée, Marseille : La Couleur des Mots multimedia writing workshops.
2015
Vivid Sydney Festival & City of Melbourne, Peoples of the Indian ocean, on giant screens in public spaces.
Musée Rimbaud, Charleville-Mézières: photo and multimedia exhibition J'irai à Zanzibar, integrated into the permanent collections.
2013
Marseille Provence 2013, Villa Méditerranée (Marseille): first creations around the project De la Méditerranée à l'océan Indien, live performance, immersive musical video show with multi-projection video and multimedia sound diffusion. Friche la Belle de Mai (Marseille), photo, sound and video exhibition.
2012
Concert tour of Sisygambis, with duo Sabot, in China : Beijing, Wuhan, Shanghai, Lanzhou and Xi'an.
2008-2012
Series of trips for the De la Méditerranée à l'océan Indien project, following the routes of Italy, Egypt, Morocco, Comoros, Tanzania and Zanzibar.
Exhibition Kaos, another look at Salento, Specchia, Italy and Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille.
2005
Möbius France prize for multimedia creation for The Silk Road.
2002-2007
Performances-installations Virtual Encounters on the Silk Road at numerous festivals in France and abroad.
1999
Expédition par voie terrestre, Sisygambis musical journey along the Silk Road, from Marseille to Shanghai : 6 months of video shoots and recordings.
1997
Facing Genders and TH Kultur festivals, Czech Republic : collaborations with Butoh dance company Uro Teatr Koku (USA/Japan); in residence at C.E.S.T.A. in Tabor, Czech Republic.
Sisygambis album, Four Stages of Cruelty.
1995
Sisygambis debut album, Interficias Te Ipsum (Te Faire Disparaître Toi Même); recorded in Katowice (Poland).
1993
Sisygambis duo's first cassette, on Polish label Requiem Records.
1989
Sisygambis concerts in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Russia.