Bembé Secreto

Join us for concerts by avant-garde musical ensemble Standing on the Corner, as part of their exhibition Seven Prepared Pianos for the Seven African Powers. Titled Bembé Secreto, these performances will harness the altered acoustics of the seven pianos distinctly presented and prepared—with symbolic objects inserted into their strings to create apparitional interventions— to summon the mysterious powers that possess them. Like the installation, these performances bridge Standing on the Corner’s interest in the urban modifications of ancient devotional practices of the Caribbean and Africa and propose the destruction of Western musical traditions.

Standing on the Corner (American, est. 2016) is led by Gio Escobar. They have performed at MoMA PS1’s Warm Up music series in 2018 and venues such as the Serpentine, London; Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection, Paris; Blank Forms, New York; Performance Space New York; and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York. Their albums include Function OST (2021), Red Burns (2017), and Standing on the Corner (2016). They have collaborated with musicians such as Danny Brown (2021), Solange (2019), Earl Sweatshirt (2018), and MIKE (2018, 2017).