Talk with Cerith Wyn Evans and Pedro Melo Alves
Vexation of Spirit. The Duerckheim Collection x Serralves
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Following Pedro Melo Alves’s site-specific performance Triggering Memory, presented as part of the exhibition Vexation of Spirit. The Duerckheim Collection x Serralves, the artist is joined by Cerith Wyn Evans (Wales, 1958) for a conversation. Cerith Wyn Evans’s conceptual and theoretical universe takes shape in works in which light, sound and text form a creative strategy that combines and articulates distinct languages. One such example is the sound sculpture Twelve Tones for Ryōan-ji, featured in the exhibition. Comprising 12 crystal flutes, the work pays tribute to composers John Cage and Arnold Schoenberg and enters into direct dialogue with visitors through Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method.
In this conversation, the two artists explore the interdisciplinary dialogues that run through their respective practices, revealing points of convergence in their approaches to sound and sculptural form, as well as between their conceptual worlds and creative processes.
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Pedro Melo Alves is one of the most prominent drummers and composers on Portugal’s avant-garde music scene in recent years. An explorer of the expanded possibilities of percussion, improviser, composer for both small and large ensembles, and curator, his work is characterised by an exploratory attitude and an ambitious crossing of aesthetic territories, ranging from jazz and classical music to electronic and experimental music. His work has received several distinctions, including the Bernardo Sassetti Composition Prize, El Intruso Revelation Band 2021, and the Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini. He has collaborated with international artists across the fields of music, performance, and cinema, including Tony Malaby, Sun Ra Arkestra, Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Leo Genovese, Camila Nebbia, Eve Risser, Susana Santos Silva, Mark Dresser, Sara Serpa, Jim Black, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Hery Paz, Joe Morris, Meg Stuart, Vera Mantero, Peter Kleinert, and Gaya de Medeiros. Over the years, he has performed at venues and festivals including The Public Theater (USA), Suoni Per Il Popolo (Canada), Funarte (Brazil), jazzahead! (Germany), the European Jazz Conference (Portugal), Europavox (France), Le Botanique (Belgium), Bimhuis (Netherlands), Porgy & Bess (Austria), Budapest Music Centre (Hungary), RoteFabrik (Switzerland), Dampfzentrale (Switzerland), Saalfelden Jazz Festival (Austria), Ljubljana Jazz Festival (Slovenia), Belgrade Jazz Festival (Serbia), 12 Points Festival (Ireland), Südtirol Jazz Festival (Italy), Primavera Sound (Portugal), Paredes de Coura (Portugal), Alkantara (Portugal), and Jazz em Agosto (Portugal). Born in Porto in 1991, Pedro Melo Alves studied Jazz Drums at ESMAE, Porto (2011), Jazz and Classical Piano at ESTAL, Lisbon (2014), and Musical Composition at ESML, Lisbon (2015). Currently a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Pedro leads and composes for projects including his Omniae Large Ensemble, the multimedia project ΞllllllΞ:MATER, The Rite of Trio, and In Igma. He was an artist-in-residence at Galeria Zé dos Bois with the improvisation series Conundrum. He performs in percussion duos with João Pais Filipe and Pedro Carneiro, and is a member of several international projects, including HIIT, the Luís Vicente Trio, and Alma Tree with Ra Kalam Bob Moses and Vasco Trilla, as well as indie bands such as Surma and Memória de Peixe. Alongside these projects, Pedro composes for theatre, dance, and film, receives commissions for classical music, and curates music programmes at Água Ardente in Lisbon.
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