Mudassir Sheikh, born in 1991 in Pakistan and currently based in Berlin, earned his MFA in Media Art from Bauhaus University in Weimar. He skillfully integrates sound, video, text, and radio in his artistic practice. Recognized for his unique sound and musical abilities, he collaborates extensively with visual artists, crafting immersive narrative audio pieces across installations and radio productions. His experiences, including the Asian Performing Artist Lab residency and work at Savvy Contemporary, have significantly shaped his perspective as a foreign creative practitioner in Germany.
Mudassir’s work delves into themes like intergenerational trauma, indigenous healing linked to shrines and water, identity and decolonial sound practices, thriving in spaces that blur reality and fiction.
“As a sought-after collaborator, I craft immersive narrative audio pieces with visual artists across installations and radio productions.
With an interdisciplinary approach, I create sensorial and immersive works, stemming from my background as a musician. Having played in various bands since my teens, I now focus on genre-fluid, experimental electronic music and storytelling. While recent years have seen a shift towards research- based audio-visual works, the sensorial aspect remains integral to my practice.
My work delves into themes like intergenerational trauma and indigenous healing through engagement with Sufi shrines in Pakistan. Inspired by the imaginative and queer nature of shrine mythologies, I explore them as sites of resistance, liberation, and communal healing. Water, often closely associated with these shrines and the Mahigir (fisherfolk) community, has emerged as a key focus, examining their inspiring resistance to capitalist development and the caging of rivers.
Excited by decolonial sound practices, I blend indigenous musical traditions from Pakistan with contemporary modes of music production. My creative process revolves around exploration and chance encounters, where creation itself is discovery. Thriving in spaces that blur reality and fiction, I draw from diverse sources such as shrine mythologies, urban legends, oral histories, and the internet, merging popular forms with experimental ones.
Intent on keeping audiences engaged and entertained without being didactic, I prefer to provoke contemplation on uncomfortable truths and perspectives, rather than seeking answers. By blending sensorial experiences with speculative fiction, resistance, and a fluid approach to representation, I challenge dominant narratives and strive for empathy-driven artistry.“