#WHOCEE?

 

OCee (born 1971) is an instinctive multi-faceted radio-host, music collector, singer and visual artist who lives in Geneva. Early in his life he escaped the civil war in Lebanon and landed with his family in Switzerland. His work is largely inspired by flashes of urban life, hours of soulful sounds injections and televised imagery. Very young he would venture with his older brother in record shops across Europe digging in the crates, looking for that special vinyl nugget and watch hours and hours of music television nurturing an infinite passion for African-American music. He is transported by the super heavy funk of James Brown, aches with every lover's prayer from Otis Redding and loses himself in Marvin Gaye's sensuous lust. In the late 80's he sees in the emergence of this new form of art called hip-hop some kind of a magical attempt to revive the music he loves. “Hip-Hop is not about invention, it is about re-invention, the amplification of the existing with that little additional flavour, you don’t have to be a musician to be an artist, it is a music made by fans and it allowed me to discover, re-discover and experience the rebirth of a treasure of sounds". He is obsessed with these sounds and images, collects them frenetically, VHS, magazines, cassettes, vinyl records, piles and piles "My father would desperately shake his head every time he'd pass In front of my room seeing me nodding my head on a dope beat". Using the backbone of this culture, soul singing, rapping, sampling and graffiti, he decided he was going to share everything he accumulated by dj’ing, rapping, singing and more recently by applying it to composing visuals, he recomposes the new with the existing, what can be perceived as a mix of the files collected in his heart and soul. Like those who revived forgotten sounds, he wants to revive forgotten tv images, walls, urban life and anonymous tags. He sees in the pixelisation of these images the concrete reality of the world he grew to adore. OCee’s work feels more like a dynamic experience embraced by the static electricity of the cathode ray tube and the deafening boomin' system. “If you see what I mean, you should hear music and urban chaos, have memory flashes when you observe my pieces”. His first collection #soulitude, exposes his desire to make one’s soul vibrate in the abyss of lonely reminiscing and profound creativity. “It’s all about soul vibration, it takes soul to stand alone"