M.A.K.U. Sound System

M.A.K.U Soundsystem embodies an active quest for identity through sound and bodies in motion, and puts on a party for all who attend their concerts. M.A.K.U’s distinctive sound juxtaposes traditional Colombian percussion, drum-set, synthesizers, electric base, guitar and sizzling horns, creating an explosive performance filled with unshakable grooves together with lyrics that speak about everyday realities that encompass love, hardships, culture, and the immigrant experience, with a positive, spiritual and sometimes humorous spin.

Niko de la Faye was born in Brest, France, in 1978. He lives and works in Beijing. A self-taught artist, Niko works with a large variety of tools and materials to create photographs,kinetic sculptures, costumes, installations, videos and performances. His inspiration and research are organized along two axes: body and geometry, and movement and space. He creates instinctively, and the foundations of his work lie in collaboration and encounters with people he meets and environments in which he finds himself living and working.

In 2007, he embarked upon Visages, an artistic reflection on faces and landscapes through the medium of body painting and photography. One year later he was invited to continue this work in Shanghai. Life in China was the inspiration for Niko’s M2B project, a kinetic sculpture and performance piece that may be interpreted as a reaction to this radically fast developing environment and quickly evolving society in which Niko found himself. He relocated to Beijing to create this piece and presented it at numerous events including the Art Beijing, the French Festival Croisements, Beijing Design Week and Caochangdi Photospring Festival. In 2013, he completed a 3,400 km ride of his sculpture from Beijing to Hong Kong, offering a series of “M2B abstract shadow theatre” shows along the way. This epic performance journey concluded with the ‘M2B Beijing-Hong Kong’ exhibition at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Fair. The following year, M2B became a cultural ambassador when it was invited to Paris by the city of Paris and the YIA. Since 2015, Niko has continued to expand his portfolio and his creative vision through sculpture, performance in collaboration with both local and international artists mainly in China.