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Chimera’s Still Warm Body, a 4-act operatic performance with a libretto by Bitsy Knox and scored with the composer, percussionist, and vibraphonist Els Vandeweyer, is a retelling of the life and death of the Ancient Greek monster, Chimera. Drawing from original source material, chaos theory, free jazz musicology, and queer theory, Chimera’s Still Warm Body traces notions of hybridity, asynchrony, and the manipulative power of fear.

Els Vandeweyer is a vibraphonist, percussionist and composer. She grew up in Belgium and is now based in Berlin. After studying classical percussion in Antwerp and jazz in Brussels and Oslo, she was one of the founding members of the IMI Kollektief. Her album „Snug as a Gun”, released on Clean Feed (2006), was a critical success. The artist develops solo-performances while also being involved in group-improvisations and contemporary music ensembles. Her performance „Xenakis; Rebonds b”, was presented at Radialsystem V. Among her past projects are the Quat Quartet with Fred Van Hove, Paul Lovens and Martin Blume, „Live atHasselt“ (NoBusiness Rekords 2013), the PascalNiggenkemper‘s Vision 7 „Lucky Prime“ (Clean Feed 2013) , the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra “Live on Planet Earth” (Alien Transistor 2014) and Serenus Zeitblom Oktett “Erster Teil-Zweiter Teil-Dritter Teil” (Hyperdelia 2017).
Some of her current projects are Metal Illusion (with Rieko Okuda), Kudu (with Ignaz Schick and Klaus Kürvers), the SFO-orchester by Georg Graewe and the collaboration with Theater Zuidpool (Antwerp). „Debut”, her first album published under her own name was released in 2019 (90% Wasser).

Bitsy Knox is a poet, performer, and radio host based in Berlin, Germany. In recent years, Bitsy has performed or presented work at Stadium (Berlin), Ashley (Berlin), Efremidis (Berlin), Hopscotch Reading Room (Berlin), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Project Space Festival (Berlin), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Peach (Rotterdam), Tent (Rotterdam), Exile Gallery (Vienna), Une Une Une (Perpignan), Native (Perpignan), Organhaus Art Centre (Chongqing), Galerie Catherine Bastide (Brussels), MACBA (Barcelona), W139 (Amsterdam), and Komplot (Brussels). Her writing has appeared in publications by TABLOID Press, Pure Fyction, Arts of the Working Class, Undecimals, and A Prior Magazine, among other places. Bitsy hosts the monthly radio show Something Like on Cashmere Radio (Berlin) and 96.5 CHFR Hornby Island Community Radio, and has appeared as a guest or guest host on Berlin Community Radio, Cashmere Radio, and WFMU. Bitsy was born in Vancouver, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She lives and works in Berlin.

Supported by the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, the Bezirksamt Mitte von Berlin, the DRAUSSENSTADT Initiative and the Musikfonds e.V.. The project is part of Canada’s culture program as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2021 and is supported by the Embassy of Canada.