Bio

With Daily Perplexities (2009–12), Nzuji De Magalhães (b. 1976 Luanda, Angola) has created a performance project in which an original composition is played by four pianists at once on four hand-painted armatures holding electric pianos. Portraying vibrant urban scenes, these objects take on a sculptural presence, and the musicians play the instruments from behind, reversing the normal order of the technology. The minimal musical composition resonates with African storytelling forms as it attempts to convey a simple narrative of childhood life. Musical movements break up a daily routine, setting an urban scene that could be Luanda, Los Angeles, or a place of the imagination. Authorship and agency are spread out across the various participating bodies, creating a collective artistic effort. As in much of De Magalhães’s work, fractures and differences come together, resisting any totalizing synthesis and drawing delight out of the irresolvable incongruities of contemporary transnational experience.