Flandria-Euskadi: Youyou eta Irrintzia

The project ‘YouYou and Irrintzi, a new look at traditional sounds’ is a Flemish-Basque collaboration between Aiaraldea Ekintzen Faktoria and the Brussels-based vocal ensemble YouYou Group. The ensemble has developed an artistic practice around “youyou”, an ancient vocal technique found in Africa and the Middle East. The group started in 2014 and now consists of 30 female members of different ages and backgrounds. There is a similar vocal tradition in the Basque Country, the “irrintzi”. The project is an exchange between an arts organisation and a cultural centre, which respectively develop and support cultural practice and are connected to local communities. Both aim to revive the vocal heritage, deeply rooted in a particular tradition but transposed to a new context (rural and urban, art).  

• 09.2023 
  YouYou Group in the Basque Country (Laudio)
   
• 10.2023
  YouYou Group in the Basque Country (Laudio)
   
• 11. 2023
  Activities revolving around the irrintzi (Brussels) 

YouYou Group 

The YouYou Group was founded in Brussels in 2014, with the support of performance, film, installation and sound artist Myriam Van Imschoot. The intention was sharing, further deepening and shaping the interest in the vocal use of the youyou (in French) or the zaghareed (in Arabic). Since then, the group has focused on this shrill, loud sound that expresses joy (and sometimes mourning).