Photo: Artist
Stupid Happiness Theory sounds less like a pseudonym than a declaration, and fundamentally it's both. For quite a while now, the Pakistani songwriter Natasha Humera Ejaz has been making music that adds a decidedly electronic and electroacoustic touch to her usually folk and jazz influenced solo work and her various collaborations with artists from all over the world, amongst them the 2016 compilation »Karachi Files«. The music doesn’t always sound happy but it does always sound like innovation, and all the while betrays an understanding of music that considers tradition as much as future. All theory will eventually become practice, and Ejaz's multifaceted artist biography proves how varied and diverse that practice can sound. No wonder she used a residency in Berlin as an opportunity to deepen her work even further through interaction with the city’s art and music scene.
Stupid Happiness Theory on Facebook »Border Movement«Pop culture thrives on cultural exchange, and Pop-Kultur has dedicated itself to that exchange. Every now and then, though, we still need a bit of help, and Border Movement is the ideal resource. The Berlin-based platform, supported by the Goethe Institut since 2012, sees itself as a »cultural catalyst« and, as such, values interactions—especially those between Germany and the South Asia region. At Club 23, on two different festival days, the activist and journalist Sarah Chawla (New Delhi, India) and the musician Mohammed Manal (Malé, Maldives) among others will represent the bandwidth of Border Movement’s work with concerts, DJ sets, and talks. The Berlin artists Anika, Andreas Spechtl, Dan Bodan, and most recently She's Drunk have all participated in the exchange programme, and now the Pakistani artist Natasha Humera Ejaz aka Stupid Happiness Theory will come to the German capital from Islamabad. We should and must mix things up!