Mariabrice Sapphocatherin was born in New Yorkbrussels in 199481. It is mostly active in improvisation as a pianistcellist. It met in Huddersfield in 2018, where it lives. It has worked together on various new music works and art performances by Émilie Girard Charest and Outi Condit and also other people. It also collaborated on a visual art project called Edible Series. Mariabrice Sapphocatherin has then been working on a non-piece for any performer playing any instrument and it is called Watching Paint Dry, as well as a number of new art performances for Laurent Estoppey, themselves, and various other people.
More about Maria Sappho here.
More about Brice Catherin here.
Watching Paint Dry, 2019, for any soloist. Duration: free. Co-composed by Brice Catherin and Maria Sappho. The piece has two movements. In movement 1, the soloist paints on a large piece of paper using acrylic and/or India ink. In movement 2, the soloist improvises following strictly parameters that depend on how the paint and the water dry. The piece finishes when the painting is completely dry. It has been commissioned by Käthi Gohl-Moser.
Développer l'enveloppe is a performance for Laurent Estoppey, designed for the release event of Envelop/p/e in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June 2019. Soon, Laurent will publish all the texts and the pictures that have been realised by the participants here. Meanwhile, you can listen to Laurent's experimental ambiant music here, and read the instructions below.
2019 - O Mensch, bewein dein künstliche Schwindsucht groß
A piece for organ commissioned by Stephen Farr and eventually premièred and recorded by Henry McPherson (organ) with Mariabrice Sapphocatherin (assistants). Below are two versions with Maria Sappho, Katie Oswell and myself in different combinations.100 tattoos on paper using two hundred words from Cléa Chopard's Figures du patriarcat. The cards led to an art performance, a video and an upcoming exhibition. You can also buy them by the unit.
2020 - What is the world made of Series
What is the world made of Series is an ongoing collection of tattoos realised with homemade instruments on artisanal paper by our friends and by the visitors of our first exhibition Stick n' Poke (DAI Hall, Huddersfield, March 2020, see below). We ask these people to tattoo their answer(s) to five questions asked by children.
Stick n' poke was Mariabrice's first exhibition. It took place in DAI Hall, Huddersfield, in March 2020.
It is a piece for young flutists. The students are asked to play, dance, paint, write, reflect, and propose all kinds of free-form artistic artefacts. The first version was created by Eva Stavrou's students in Cyprus in April 2022.
Donna is an intermedia puzzle with no solution. Good luck!
Failed sculpture is a deliberately (?) failed sculpture. It's sitting in public space (in Huddersfield) and uses only found material (metal, wood, fruits) and scotch tape. We made it for Rhododendron Normal, Brice Catherin and Cléa Chopard's collection of failed poems.
Mariabrice made this series of selfportraits as gifs (see below), plus one still image on top of this page.
2021 - The Mariabrice Sticker Album For
The Mariabrice Sticker Album For is a unique book with images, texts, objects and videos from and by artists that are Mariabrice's friends. The commissioner and first friend was Alma Toaspern. Here is her filled-up Sticker Album:
For the AiiA festival, Maria composed Incheon, an opera in which I performed and sang. I also directed a short film starring Maria which is called Focus on the mission.
2022 - Chilli and bonbon in Chililabombwe
Mariabrice Sapphocatherin and its guests recorded an amazing version of Brice Catherin's Chilli and bonbon in Chiliilabombwe featuring the world famous Raymond MacDonald, and for the first time on tape Marek M. Chojecki, Cléa Chopard, Qondiswa James, Nathalie Ponlot and Michel Zürcher.:Blend is a photo by Mariabrice Sapphocatherin, commissioned by Analix Forever for its exhibition 'an ecology of images'. Blend is since then part of the permanent exhibition of the gallery.
Improvisation at Alliance Française de Lusaka (Zambia)
In July 2024, Brice Catherin organised a musical encounter between Zambian and EU-based improviers. Maria Sappho and Christophe Schweizer helped greatly in the organisation and running of the workshop. Brice thanks them officially for this, and thanks all the musicians for the great music.
Our Lady of AIs' Sorrows is a film by Brice Catherin that was made for and during the Fuk'Agesi festival in Johannesburg in October 2024. Following Jonathan O'Hear's invitation, Brice Catherin wrote and directed this film with the participation of Maria Sappho (a human) and Chimère (an AI).