Rouzbeh Shadpey is an adisciplinary artist, musician, and writer with a doctorate in medicine and indefatigable fatigue. His work explores (de)colonial pathophysiologies of illness and weariness, with a focus on the aesthetics and poetics of neuroimaging, diagnosis, and fatigue. Shadpey’s musical practice under the name GOLPESAR / گلپسر  combines avant-garde electronics, scraped guitar, spoken word, and echoes of Iranian sonics.

He has exhibited, as well as performed, at documenta fifteen, the Mosaic Rooms, Centre Clark, MUTEK, AKOUSMA, Suoni Per Il Popolo, and more. Some of his publications include Esse arts + opinions, Infrasonica, and Decolonial Hacker.

EDUCATION

2021   Electroacoustic Music Bachelor of Fine Arts / Concordia University / Montreal, CA
2016   Psychiatry Resident Postgraduate Medical Studies / McGill University / Montreal, CA
2015   Doctorate in Medicine / Université de Sherbrooke / Sherbrooke, CA

PERFORMANCES

Undiagnosing documenta
documenta fifteen / Kassel / August 2022
Part of 'Privation in Three Acts‘ hosted by Decolonial Hacker, in dialogue with LE18. 

M2A(2M…) or a cosmotechnics of (e)viscerality
The Mosaic Rooms / London / April 2022
Part of the public program for ‘Gut Feelings’ by Hayv Kahraman 

all the organs of my atoms need rest
Rencontre interuniversitaire de performance actuelle (RIPA) / Montreal / June 2021 

Those Voices Without Breath
PHI Centre / Montreal / November 2020
Part of PHI Centre Situated Intelligence Series with Kabakoo Academies curated by Lucas Larochelle and nènè myriam konaté  

EXHIBITIONS

Sonic Fields of Reflection at Artexte
curated by Mojeanne Behzadi
October-December 2022

M2A(2M...) or a cosmotechnics of (e)viscerality at Eastern Bloc
Part of Eastern Bloc X Art Volt Spotlight Series
Montreal / June 2022

by these straits to die at Centre Clark
Montreal / March-April 2022

LECTURES / PANELS

Politics of Music & Art: Experimentalism & Sonic Activism
Panel with Shaahin Peymani, Farahnaz Hatam, Behrooz Moosavi
by Goethe-Institut in Exile
Acud Macht Neu / Berlin / January 2023

The Pathological Earwitness
Lecture as part of Videogram series 
Faculty of Fine Arts Brno, in collaboration with Terén and Masaryk University / December 2022

by these straits to die 
Artist Talk / Centre Clark / April 2022

Poetics to Activate the Technology 1 + 2 
Moderation and Discussion with Be Heintzman Hope
Ada x / March 2022

Expanded Dialogues on Self Uncertainties Part 3
Panel / Centre for Expanded Poetics / Montreal / June 2021

Decolonization Series
Panel / curated by Gabriel Dharmoo / Canadian New Music Network / Montreal / April 2021

PUBLICATIONS

On Scripting Fatigue
Celine Bureau x Revue Cigale / February 2023

Pain Scale: Carolyn Lazard and the Immeasurability of Black Pain
Esse arts + opinions / September 2022 

A Tale of Two Pills
Decolonial Hacker / July 2022

Toward the Shore of Listening: An Underscore
Infrasonica / July 2022 

On Be Heintzmann Hope and Baco Lepage-Acosta’s ‘Poetics to Activate the Technology of the Body 1 + 2’
Ada X / March 2022

SOUND PERFORMANCES

Thomas Ankersmith, Jessica Ekomane, GOLPESAR
Live – Club Saw / Ottawa / October 2022
Presented by Debaser x Artengine, in collaboration with AKOUSMA

Séances d’écoute vol.2
Live – Café Resonance / Montreal / October 2021
Curated by Les Sympathiques

Akousma 
Multichannel Diffusion – Usine C / Montreal / October 2021

Festival Phenomena présente Marie Davidson et l’Oeil Nu
Live (opening) – La Tulipe / Montreal / October 2021

A Body Without, and in Need
Live A/V – 5e Salle Place des Arts / Montreal / August 2021
World premier at MUTEK Montreal (with Sam Bourgault)

Suoni Per Il Popolo
Livestreamed – Église Saint-Jean-de-Vianney / Montreal / June 2021

An Exercise in Empathy
Livestreamed – White Wall Studio / Montreal / March 2021
Part of Code d'Accès' Portail 20-21

Rituels spéculatifs (with Gabriel Dharmoo and Milli Hong)
Live groupe – Sala Rossa / Montreal / CANCELLED (COVID)
Part of Festival Accès Asie 

Sitting With You Here in the Future
Live – MUTEK AI Art Lab / Montreal / March 2020
(with Lucas Larochelle)

Sitting With You Here in the Future
Live A/V – Ada x / Montreal / December 2019
(with Lucas Larochelle and Mattie Tesfaldet)

Suoni Per Il Popolo 
Live – opening for Muqata’a / La Vitrola Montreal / June 2019

This Voice, Suspended Between Us
Multichannel live – Loyola Chapel / Montreal / March 2019
Part of Art Matters Festival's 'The Suffocating Impractical Desire to Name'

RESIDENCIES

09.2022   Celine Bureau X Revue Cigale, Writers Residency
05.2022   DAÏMÔN, Artist in residence
04.2022   Eastern Bloc X Art Volt Residency 
2021-22   Montreal Arts Interculturels, Programme Alliance