As part of its international residency exchange programme with Pro Helvetia, L’Abri – Geneva is opening the doors of its studios to the South African artist Thelma Ndebele, also known as DJ DORMANTYOUTH, from September to December.

Under the name DORMANTYOUTH, Thelma focuses mostly on electronic music and sounds from urban underground scenes. As an architect, DJing at events centred on specific identities or women has become a method of research for them, enabling them to explore Johannesburg’s nightlife in a unique way. Through DORMANTYOUTH, they forge connections between the body, space and music, showing the profound influence of sound on architecture.

Thelma’s residency will focus on creating prototypes of an "event space for otherness", through models and experimental scenography centred on materials and forms. The project draws inspiration from her Master’s thesis (2020), Nocturnal Heterotopias, which examined the need for affordable venues for LGBTQ+ events in contemporary cities. These spaces are temporary, intense and embodied, placing queer and Black electronic music at the forefront.

For this occasion, Thelma is collaborating with Juliette Gampert (AA24–25), Oluwabukunmi Olukitibi and Massinda on hybrid workshops combining movement practices with reflections on the body as an archive, a place of memory and resistance. Juliette Gampert is also inviting members of her community of female dancers, whose movements are rooted in Afro-diasporic cultures, to take part in the two workshops.