Gonjasufi is on the road a lot: As a singer, DJ, actor and also as a yoga teacher. He will perform at SCHIRN AT NIGHT on April 7. The SCHIRN MAG talked with him about his music and his plans for Saturday night.
Gonjasufi, you work as a DJ, vocalist and actor. What inspires you when creating new music?
People, birds, trees, the bees, the ocean, family, nature itself, just the ability to breathe and have self-awareness. The ability to create and sculpt what is invisible – that is the most powerful form of magic to me.
I read that you also have an additional job as a yoga teacher. How does that influence your work?
I only teach yoga now to my children and people close to me in the community, people I work with. I haven’t taught in front of a class in a yoga room for years. The Western world just seems to have become so superficial and has turned everything into a “Happy Meal” from McDonald’s – I no longer wish to participate in that.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Portraet_Gonjasufi_58e76610eb.jpg)
When I listened to your album “A Sufi and a Killer” for the first time it conjured up associations with ecstatic rituals and mysticism as well as deep contemplation and meditation. It’s a wild bunch of references that can be found in your latest album “Callus” as well. How did this unique style come about?
Well, the musical style came from going directly into what I fear. From realizing that the path to liberation is through fear, knowing that the entire time you’re protected and there’s no such thing as death, so fearing pain is also an illusion.
And what’s your relation to the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat?
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a major influence on my work in the 1990s. I was introduced to his work and it was as though I immediately identified with his perspective magnetically, with the way he simplifies everything that seems to be so complicated. It’s almost as if a child made the drawings. He seems to retain his child-like spirit in his work, so anyone at any age can identify with it the same way that Bob Marley’s music resonates. Jean-Michel has allowed me to soften the edges within myself and to embrace the delicate side, knowing that this is actually where strength comes from. Basically just to be yourself and not worry about what other people think about you.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_gonjasufi_Saccenti_2016_A__MG_0925_copy_v2_cfbabb2bc6.jpg)
What role does your African-American descent play in your art – if any?
Me being of African descent has shaped me in many ways. Living here in America and being of African descent has been quite an experience. America still seems to be unaware of the truth behind Africa and still worships a white Jesus, which is the mascot of white supremacy. So for me growing up knowing that Christ is black has definitely been an open secret that I’ve had to repeat to myself while trying to maneuver through this supremacist nation.
Many times I ask myself and others who go to church: “If you were to show up one day and that Jesus picture that you see was no longer white, but black, would you be offended and would you still go to church?” Imagine how we, people of color, feel knowing the truth! I’m a realist, so I look forward to finally getting my feet on the ground and relating to Africa and connecting with my roots in a way that I haven’t been able to yet.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_screenshot_blame_06ee3633d0.jpg)
At Schirn at Night on April 7, you will play a DJ set. What are your plans for Saturday evening?
I am planning to play a bunch of electronic-weird-broken-dark-distorted-decrepit beats and to mix that with some Afrobeat Jazz. Everything that Basquiat seems to have listened to himself. It’s going to be freeform spontaneous. I might play some unreleased new music I have. I’m just going to have fun scraping off all the resin that the radio has been poisoning us with, so if you can keep a beat to a faltering BPM, you’re definitely going to enjoy my set.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Grada_Kilomba__ILLUSIONS_Vol._I__2017__Photo_by_Ze___ue_de_Paiva__Courtesy_of_the_Artist_hi_fc54cf9e9e.jpg)
Exploring the iceberg
In her works, the artist Grada Kilomba deals with the post-colonial condition, trauma and memory. Schirn Mag spoke to her about aspects of the...
![](/fileadmin/user_upload/BASQUIAT_BARBICAN_-_CLIP_13.jpg)
Copy, overwrite, copy again
Anyone who rented a movie after 1976 would have done so on VHS. However, the video tape’s history goes back much further, and is closely connected to...
![](/fileadmin/user_upload/Downtown_81_screenshot.jpg)
Downtown 81
Message in a bottle from the 1980s, wandering the streets of New York with Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film Downtown 81 was shot before Basquiat’s big...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Schirn_Presse_Basquiat_King_Zulu_1986_2ab7e71678.jpg)
Jazz, Bebop and Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s record collection is said to have contained some 3,000 LPs. In particular Jazz and Bebop had a huge influence on the artist.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Detroit-_Copyright_2017_Concorde_Filmverleih_GmbH_930780d762.jpg)
The political force of films
The SCHIRN MAG presents five outstanding films, which do not only deal with racism in the USA, but do also grab its history by the scruff of the neck...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Schirn_Presse_Basquiat_Ausstellungsansicht_Foto_Norbert_Miguletz-2_702a65e27c.jpg)
Basquiat's Legacy Today
Accompanying the exhibition “Basquiat. Boom for Real,” a panel discussion will be held at the SCHIRN’s CROWN CLUB on April 12. Taking as their...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Schirn_Presse_Hirose_Basquiat_Haring_Whitney_Museum_1987_bd823a026d.jpg)
Basquiat in fashion
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s outfits were a permanent composition of opposites. How the young artist became the muse of fashion designers and a role model...
![](/fileadmin/SCHIRN/Magazin/Abbildungen_2018/Kontext/Basquiat/Basquiat_und_die_Beats/Share_Schirn_Presse_Basquiat_Ausstellungsansicht_Foto_Norbert_Miguletz-5.jpg)
Basquiat and the Beats
Words, signs and symbols. Jean-Michel Basquiat's pieces are truly suffused with fragments of text. One of his most important sources of inspiration...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_20110110_DELOATCH_BYRON_178SW1_cc017724e4.jpg)
Put your high heels on!
Musician and singer Byron Deloatch brings the adventurous spirit of Jean-Michel Basquiat back to life in the CROWN CLUB. In a conversation with SCHIRN...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_SCHIRN-BASQUIAT_NM_0082_9d081abe6f.jpg)
New York´s New Wave
New York/New Wave: The legendary exhibition at the P.S.1 opened up the New York art scene to the young Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981. The SCHIRN has...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Basquiat_Helm_aus_Plakat_leicht_Orange.jpg_f5b689741a.gif)
Basquiat. Boom for Real - Soundtrack
Disco, Punk, Hip-Hop, New Wave and noise: The music scene of New York in the 1970s and 1980s was a source of inspiration for Jean-Michel Basquiat –...
![](/fileadmin/SCHIRN/Magazin/Abbildungen_2018/Kontext/Basquiat/Mudd_Club_und_NY_Clubszene/Share_Jean_Michel_Basquiat_Schirn_Kunsthalle_Barbican_London_Exhibition_Ausstellung.jpg)
Basquiat’s world: Downtown NYC and the Mudd Club
New York City Downtown: a melting pot of the arts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was here that the Mudd Club opened its doors in 1978 – and...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Screenshot_rausfahren_aus_NY_d29a2a35aa.jpg)
On The Trail Of Basquiat - Part 2
SCHIRN MAG on the road in New York: The second part of the journey into Basquiat’s past takes us from an original SAMO© tag to his longtime studio and...
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_Debbie_Harry_Mural_Bowery_5891da7d9e.jpg)
On the trail of Basquiat
A journey to the past and back to the future: The SCHIRNMAG explores Basquiat’s home turf in New York, from the Green-Wood Cemetery to SoHo, and on to...
![](/fileadmin/SCHIRN/Magazin/Abbildungen_2018/Kontext/Basquiat/Hashtag_Basquiat/Schare_Schirn_Presse_Bertoglio_Basquiat_on_the_Set_of_Downtown_81_1980-81.jpg)
#Basquiat
Life-Artist, forerunner of the internet generation, ultimately: a contemporary. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s oeuvre, his life as performance and his...
![](/fileadmin/SCHIRN/Magazin/Abbildungen_2018/Kontext/Basquiat/Banksy_Basquiat/Vorschau_Banksy_Basquiat_Barbican_Center.jpg)
The fascination of the unknown
What links Jean-Michel Basquiat, alias SAMO©, and Banksy? SCHIRN MAG on the trail of street art in New York and London.
![](/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_jmbmuddclub_ab08d64178.jpg)
Basquiat. Boom for Real
In February 2018 the SCHIRN will be hosting a large exhibition on the work of US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.