Artist David Zink Yi is joined by several of his regular musical collaborators for two days of workshops on Afro-Cuban percussion. Deploying claves, congas and drums the class learn the principles of Cuban music, exploring different genres such as salsa, guaracha, mambo and chachacha.
Participants are invited to bring their own instruments if they have them.
Approximate duration on each day - five hours with breaks.
David Zink Yi (b.1973, Lima, Peru)
David Zink Yi's art is underpinned by what he calls a 'layered notion of identity'. In his videos, photography, and sculpture, he examines culturally determined practices, including cooking, dancing, singing, music, and speaking, in order to explore how identity is formed and expressed through everyday actions.
Many of his videos explore the changing role played by indigenous traditions, colonialism and trans-global migration, in the creation of personal and cultural identities.
In the 1990s he learnt to play conga drums while visiting Cuba and subsequently formed a band, De Adentro y Afuera (From Within and Without) with a group of Afro-Cuban musicians. Music not only became one of the main subjects of his work, but also a means of structuring his videos and performances.
Having previously found enormous difficulty in producing so many of the things that he wanted to create as a visual artist, he realised that 'in music it was just there.'