A memoir 1 by Tero Nauha / Spruce Spray Shadings by Freja Bäckman / Conic Sections III by Emiddio Vasquez
“But noise does indeed exist, and trying to define it in a unifying manner across the range of contexts will only invite noise on itself”. – Douglas Kahn
Date: 7 October 2026, 19:00
Venue: Phytorio – Visual Artists and Art Theorists Association, Nicosia Municipal Garden (https://maps.app.goo.gl/3UemuJ38jgSU5Rxh7)
Admission: Suggested donation of €8/€5* (students, unemployed, people with disabilities)
On 7th October 2026 at 19:00, “Noise Traffic: Events” in collaboration with the University of Nicosia and Phytorio – Visual Artists and Art Theorists Association, features “A memoir 1” live performance by Tero Nauha, “Spruce Spray Shadings” (2022) sound work by Freja Bäckman, and “Conic Sections III” by Emiddio Vasquez, at Phytorio within Nicosia Municipal Garden.
A memoir 1
Tero Nauha
Photo credit: Tero Nauha
“A memoir 1” is a performance by Tero Nauha about memory, intimacy, and the personal narratives we tell each other so that the self can view itself as coherent. What seems improvised is never authentic. We are always more than ourselves: an agency reflecting its relationship with other agencies, whether conscious or latent. This performance is based on speech and corporal movement, yet what is true is never the case. The words that are enunciated may be obscene, hilarious, or sad, but it would be a mistake to view them as confessions or witness statements. This is not a performance about repressed memories or trauma, but rather about ambiguity, simulation, and actualization.
The performance has few notions of ‘schizopractice’, an artistic research practice developed by Tero Nauha during his doctoral research on Félix Guattari’s schizoanalytic practice.
The performance lasts about 45 minutes.
Tero Nauha is an artist, researcher and professor on the Live Art and Performance Studies MA programme at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. His research addresses the performativity of political economies and material cultures. The intersection of performance, duration, language, politics and material culture defines his artistic work.
Spruce Spray Shadings (2022)
Freja Bäckman
Photo credit: Vincent Roumagnac
“Spruce Spray Shadings” (2022) by Freja Bäckman is a vinyl record consisting of two tracks of bass drone and a text in four chapters, retelling events which have or possibly could take place. They contain traces and stolen chunks from Witold Gombrowicz’s novel Cosmos and William S. Burroughs’ Cities of the Red Night, discovered by having followed the words ‘spruce’ and ‘shadings’ in the original texts. The narration begins by venturing down the stairs and deeper into the bushes and ends up with a pile of spruce needles after dancing with discarded christmas trees.
Spruce Spray Shadings is another iteration of Freja Bäckman’s body of work “I was told I chop wood like a ballet dancer”. The work explores the retelling of events and references from this series.
The bass tracks on Spruce Spray Shadings are played by Tari Doris and Freja Bäckman in an improv drone session.
Credits:
Text and voice: Freja Bäckman
Sound design: Tari Doris
Textual help: E.L. Karhu
Proofreading: Kataja Varisvaara
Spruce Spray and Shadings is supported by Svenska kulturfonden and Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
The sound work lasts about 20 minutes.
Freja Bäckman works as an artist, educator, and researcher. They are a lecturer at the Live Art and Performance Studies programme (LAPS) at the Theatre Academy, University of Arts Helsinki. Their practice is often grounded in long‑term, research‑based projects that unfold through live events, spatial situations and publications, attentive to processes of collective inquiry.
Emiddio Vasquez presents Conic Sections III
Photo credit: Emiddio Vasquez
Conic Sections III is a performance series that repurposes street cones into horn speakers, in order to reconsider sonically and spatially the split between private and public sphere.
Emiddio Vasquez’s sound performances often include improvised electronics and synthesis techniques that vary in degrees of intensity and complexity. From raw ear-piercing noise to pulverized samples, field recordings and all-embracing sound quilts, he performs in response to people, environments, and histories, all in equal measure.
Emiddio Vasquez is a Cypriot-Dominican musician, artist, and researcher. For over a decade he helped shape the Cypriot underground music scene, as an organiser, a DJ, and a performer, and in 2018 he founded the record label Moneda (@moneda_._). Along with Peter Eramian he also works as Lower Levant Company (@lowerlevantcompany), co-representing Cyprus in the 60th Venice Biennale.
*The net proceeds from the donations are paid to the artists.