EN
Christian Rosales Fonseca (1993, Bogotá, Colombia) is a composer, improviser, and electric guitar performer based in Bremen, Germany. His artistic practice moves across the boundaries of contemporary composition, free improvisation, and transdisciplinary research. He is currently a PhD candidate in the binational Artistic Research Program between the University of the Arts Bremen (supervised by Prof. Dr. Mona Schieren) and the University of Groningen (supervised by Prof. Dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann and Assistant Prof. Dr. Verónica Peselmann). Since January 2025, his doctoral research has been funded by the Promotionsförderung grant from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
He studied composition with Prof. Jörg Birkenkötter and Daniel Smutny, and electroacoustic composition with Prof. Kilian Schwoon at the University of the Arts Bremen. He later pursued Meisterschüler studies in Fine Arts with Prof. Markus Löffler and Prof. Andree Korpys. In Colombia, he earned his Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude at Universidad El Bosque, where he studied composition with Prof. Daniel Álvarez and classical guitar with Prof. César Caicedo.
His artistic practice engages with political and social issues from recent Colombian history, which he examines through a postcolonial lens. His music reflects transcultural influences between Europe and Latin America, while consciously avoiding exoticizing tendencies. His doctoral project focuses on the ceremonial practice of pagamento among the Kágaba (Kogui) people and examines the colonial sound recordings made by Konrad Theodor Preuss in 1914–1915. Through a decolonial lens, he explores the intersections of contemporary composition, visual arts, and indigenous sound ontologies, aiming to develop an ethical framework for working with historical phonographic archives in active dialogue with the Kágaba community.
In parallel with his research, Rosales Fonseca lectures at the University of the Arts Bremen, where he teaches a seminar that explores indigenous sound ontologies, colonial sound archives, decolonial artistic practices, and field recording techniques, among other related topics.
He has received several grants and distinctions, including the Musikfonds Stipendienprogramm (2023), NEUSTART KULTUR – DMR Stipendium (2022), and a production grant from the Senator für Kultur Bremen (2021). He was also awarded the DAAD–COLFUTURO scholarship through the Länderbezogenes Kooperationsprogramm with Colombia (2018–2020), the Semillero de Talentos scholarship from COLFUTURO (2017), and the National Composition Prize in Manizales, Colombia (2017). Rosales Fonseca is an active member of several experimental music collectives and ensembles, including projektgruppe neue musik, INCOMODO, CROMBF, and KLANK.
Christian Rosales Fonseca 