bio:
Jonathan Uliel Saldanha is a composer, visual artist and stage director whose work constructs speculative architectures at the intersection of sound, light, camouflage, animist logics and cybernetic feedback. His practice unfolds across performance, installation and sonic systems, treating stage and exhibition space as zones where matter, signal and myth form unstable organisms.
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Saldanha articulates a singular cosmology in which technological infrastructures and mythopoetic narratives are entangled with planetary rhythms — solar cycles, accelerationist vectors, fungal intelligence, and the voices of synthetic entities.
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Drawing from sound system culture, ritual structures, speculative philosophy and science fiction, he develops environments where human and non-human agents are inseparable. His research probes camouflage, spectral voices, architectures of light and recursive feedback loops as instruments for collective sensing and political imagination.
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In 2024/25, Saldanha presented his first large-scale solo exhibition, Surface Disorder, at Galeria Municipal do Porto and EGEAC Lisbon, accompanied by a monographic publication with Mousse Publishing. Between 2020 and 2022, as associate artist at Teatro Municipal do Porto, he premiered Red Mercury, Lithium Faust, and Libidinal Lake — hybrid stage works integrating synthetic soundscapes, vocal distortion and speculative dramaturgy. His work has been presented at institutions such as the Serralves Museum, Palais de Tokyo, and Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB).
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An active presence in the Portuguese experimental scene since the late 1990s, Saldanha founded the sound-art collective SOOPA in 1998 and has since developed multiple ensembles and collaborations. He currently leads HHY & The Macumbas, HHY & The Kampala Unit, and Arsenal Mikebe, touring extensively across Europe, Africa and beyond. His music has been featured at international festivals including Primavera Sound, Le Guess Who, Unsound, Roskilde, Rewire, Fusion, Donaufestival and CTM, and has been released by Nyege Nyege Tapes, Tzadik and House of Mythology.
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Saldanha is represented by Galeria Duarte Sequeira.
selected exhibitions & performances:
2025
SURFACE DISORDER — Galeria Municipal de Lisboa
2024
SURFACE DISORDER — Galeria Municipal do Porto
CAPITAL ARCHANGELS — Duarte Sequeira, Braga
ESPLENDOR E DISMORFIA + THE BREAKING POINT — with Vera Mantero, Teatro Bairro Alto, Lisbon
2023
PSYCH OP PUMP — Galeria Municipal do Porto
ATAVIC FOREST — Mucho Flow Festival, Guimarães
2022
LIBIDINAL LAKE — RIVOLI Grand Auditorium, Teatro Municipal do Porto
LIBIDINAL LAKE — Centro Cultural Belém, Lisbon
ATAVIC FOREST — at Metamersion: Latent Space, Champalimaud Institute Lisbon
PETRA CORTRIGHT X JONATHAN ULIEL SALDANHA X HYMODERNITY — Frieze – No.9 Cork Street, London
2021
BLISTERING TONGUES — curated by Caterina Avataneo & Despoina Tzanou, Duarte Sequeira Warehouse, Braga
ATAVIC MACHINE — BoCA Biennial, Lisboa
SCOTOMA CINTILANTE — The Act of Hearing Symposium, Museum Folkwang, Essen
REI POSTO REI MORTO — with Catarina Miranda, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisboa
LITHIUM FAUST — Teatro Municipal do Porto
AFTER THE LAW — Rencontre Internationale Paris/Berlin – X3Drill, Teatro Municipal do Porto
2020
RED MERCURY — Teatro Municipal do Porto
SWARMING DECAY — The Invisible Exhibition, curated by Delfim Sardo, Carpintarias de São Lázaro / Culturgest, Lisboa
2019
PLAGUE VECTOR — Forum Arte Braga
DIAGONAL ANIMAL — with Catarina Miranda, Fall River Arts Festival, Massachusetts
ESPLENDOR E DISMORFIA — with Vera Mantero, Avignon Theater Festival, Avignon
LOCUS AMOENUS, LOCUS HORRIBILIS — Solar – Galeria de Arte Cinemática, Vila do Conde
VOCODER & CAMOUFLAGE / VANISHING POINT — works from the António Cachola Collection, curated by João Laia, Galeria do Torreão Nascente, Lisboa
BROKEN FIELD ATLANTIS – DRUM CORPS — DDD + FITEI, Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli
BEHEMOTH REPUBLIC — Geometria Sónica, Arquipélago Center for Contemporary Arts, Azores
DISMORFIA — curated by Nuno Crespo, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto
2018
VOCODER & CAMOUFLAGE: TACTIS OF DECAY — Passerelle Centre d'art Contemporain Brest, France
2017
ANOXIA — Bienal Ano Zero, Coimbra
AFASIA TÁTICA — Culturgest, Porto
O POÇO — Festival DDD, Rivoli Teatro Municipal do Porto, Portugal
PLETHORA — OUT.FEST, Barreiro
OXIDATION MACHINE — Serralves em Festa, Porto 2016 / DoDisturb Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2017
2016
SIBILO REFLEXO — for Banda Marcial da Foz do Douro, Espírito do Lugar, Porto
2015
SILVO UMBRA — for Santa Cecília Choir, Festival Circular, Vila do Conde
2014
DEL — for voice trio, electronics and viola, Fórum do Futuro, Porto
2012
KHORUS ANIMA — for Outra Voz Choir, Festival Sonores, CEC Guimarães
SANCTA VISCERA TUA — Igreja Santa Clara, Porto / Igreja São Francisco Guimarães
2013
JUNGLE MACHINE — Serralves, Porto 2010 / Festival Accès(s), Pau, France
2012
KHORUS ANIMA — for Outra Voz Choir, Festival Sonores, CEC Guimarães
2010
ANTENA 4 — Colectivo EMBANKMENT, with the colection of Serralves Museum, Torres Vedras
selected discography:
2025
HHY & The Kampala Unit — Turbo Meltdown [Nyege Nyege 12″”vinyl]
Kingdom Molongi — Kembo [Nyege Nyege 12″”vinyl]
2024
Arsenal Mikebe — Drum Machine [Nyege Nyege 12″”vinyl]
Jonathan Uliel Saldanha — Boca Muralha [Horror Vector, Tape]
HHY & The Macumbas — Bom Sangue Mau[Horror Vector, Tape]
2022
Lady Aicha & Pisko Crane's Original Fulu Miziki — N'Djila Wa Mudujimu [Nyege Nyege 12″”vinyl]
HHY & The Macumbas — Camouflage Vector: Edits From Live Actions 2017-2019 [Nyege Nyege Tape]
2020
HHY & The Kampala Unit — Lithium Blast [Nyege Nyege 12″”vinyl]
2019
HHY & The Macumbas — Melting in the Heat of Chase [House of Mythology, Digital]
2018
HHY & The Macumbas — Beheaded Totem [House of Mythology 12″”vinyl]
2016
Jonathan Uliel Saldanha — Tunnel Vision [Silo Rumor 12″”vinyl]
2015
Fujako — EXOBELL [Ångström Records 12″”vinyl]
2014
Fujako — Soul Buzz [Ångström Records 10″”vinyl]
HHY & The Macumbas — Throat Permission Cut [SILO 12″”vinyl]
2012
Fujako — Landform Erosion [Rotorelief 12”vinyl]
Doyle/Saldanha/Silva/Costa — FivePoemsForTheSwampGhost [12″”vinyl]
Fujako — Landforms [Wordsound Digital, 2009 & Ångström Records, double 12″”vinyl]
2011
U.S.S. — Machine Gun [Soopa/Radon CD and 7″” vinyl]
2021
Jonathan Uliel Saldanha — The Earth As A Floating Egg [Soopa CD]
HHY & The Macumbas — Legba/Houmfort [Soopa 7″” vinyl]
2007-2009
Badawi/Raz Mesinai — Unit of Resistance [CD & vinyl on ROIR]
collections:
State Contemporary Art Collection, PT
António Cachola Collection, PT
Serralves Foundation Collection, PT
Contemporary Art Collection of Porto City Council, PT
Contemporary Art Collection of Lisbon City Council, PT