WELL·BISHI
︙NIYABJA
Photos / Visuals / Videos — 2021 ︎ 2025
Still ƒrom Niyabja’s Well-Bishi ︎ Listen to WELL-BISHI
WELL·BISHI — the first album by NIYABJA — evokes the state oƒ (re)birth, an act oƒ being and creating the living, despite the reality oƒ the deadly space oƒ the colonial world. NIYABJA is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, multi-instrumentalist and singer~songwriter, who studies and transposes the Kosmoloji Bèlè into her artistic work and scientific research, as a therapeutic device oƒ Bien-Naître-Ancestral (BNA): Edification oƒ Individual and Collective Existence.
〜NIYABJA — Ni yann - Ni lòt : Tut an menm tan, emerges ƒrom the fusion oƒ two words in Kriba, a language and writing system created by Akekusu. NIYABA: Queen + ONIJA: Warrior.
And Bishi in Kriba means: Born.
And Bishi in Kriba means: Born.
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WELL·BISHI
Visualizer — 2024
In a fractal and spectral dance, the intimancestral waters — reflecting the passage oƒ the setting sun — into which NIYABJA immerses herself, unfold into multiple vibrations~dimensions, revealing echoes oƒ her Well-Bishi / Well-Borning.
Specifications
dimension: 4:3
duration: 5’30 minutes
space: intimancestral waters
time: 2021︎2024
dimension: 4:3
duration: 5’30 minutes
space: intimancestral waters
time: 2021︎2024
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Mèsi lé Zansèt
Visualizer — 2024
Stills ƒrom ︎ Mèsi lé Zansèt · Niyabja
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I remember wondering where I might hear music composed with the atmosphere oƒ our night. Then, one evening, NIYABJA sent this gift — a timeless song, recorded at~with the night, in which she thanks the ancestors, singing to them that we have arrived~returned. In response, I sent her a visual meditation where cosmorganic bodies vibrate and shimmer — within, without, and all around us — as a way oƒ thanking her ƒor introducing me to Bèlè and its way oƒ life.
I remember wondering where I might hear music composed with the atmosphere oƒ our night. Then, one evening, NIYABJA sent this gift — a timeless song, recorded at~with the night, in which she thanks the ancestors, singing to them that we have arrived~returned. In response, I sent her a visual meditation where cosmorganic bodies vibrate and shimmer — within, without, and all around us — as a way oƒ thanking her ƒor introducing me to Bèlè and its way oƒ life.
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I chose to combine these two precious and powerful songs into a single visualizer to share the vision~feeling I get when listening to them: a deep, intimancestral journey oƒ re:connection with our:selves, infused with fractals oƒ water and plants living, dancing with:in the waves oƒ sound and light.
I chose to combine these two precious and powerful songs into a single visualizer to share the vision~feeling I get when listening to them: a deep, intimancestral journey oƒ re:connection with our:selves, infused with fractals oƒ water and plants living, dancing with:in the waves oƒ sound and light.
Specifications
dimension: 16:9
duration: 9’34 minutes
space: kòkosmos
time: 2022︎2025
dimension: 16:9
duration: 9’34 minutes
space: kòkosmos
time: 2022︎2025
Credits
music: Niyabja (vocals, Chimen Chyen composition), Mawongany (drums), Sentwòz (Zyèw Palé composition)
direction, video editing: Klēlo
live video recording (Chimen Chyen): Wendie Zahibo
crown oƒ dried plant fibers: Séphora Joannes
headwrap, plant dyed scarf: Nannan Mouna
seeds, cowries jewellery: Fanm Ata
dress: Asrafobawu
music: Niyabja (vocals, Chimen Chyen composition), Mawongany (drums), Sentwòz (Zyèw Palé composition)
direction, video editing: Klēlo
live video recording (Chimen Chyen): Wendie Zahibo
crown oƒ dried plant fibers: Séphora Joannes
headwrap, plant dyed scarf: Nannan Mouna
seeds, cowries jewellery: Fanm Ata
dress: Asrafobawu
