In a city where scenes rise and dissolve overnight, Life is Beautiful has spent the last three years doing something rarer: building a world. Founded in 2023 by the artist ‘aloisius’, the project describes itself as an improvisation-based gesamtkunstwerk—a German term meaning “total work of art”—and the definition feels accurate not as branding, but as method. Life is Beautiful is not only a collective, not only a label, not only a night out. It is a living container where sound, movement, poetry, performance, and visual language are treated as one continuous practice.
Life Is Beautiful is excited to announce a new milestone: the Libiversary Festival. This three-day celebration will mark the project’s third anniversary, taking place at EartH Hackney in Dalston from Friday, July 24, 2026, at 5:00 PM to Sunday, July 26, 2026, at 11:00 PM. The festival will serve as the collective’s debut multi-night event, featuring three nights designed to showcase the rich tapestry of experiences that Life Is Beautiful has cultivated since its inception.
At the centre is the seven-piece collective itself: NWAKKE, abi asisa, Jasper Maurice, Bianca Scout, THE NARRATOR, Isaiah Hull, and aloisius. Their combined practice moves across poetry, theatre, music, performance art, sound art, and visual arts, with improvisation acting as the connective tissue.
Together, they have become a familiar presence within London’s experimental performance circuit, frequently appearing at venues such as Cafe OTO and Ormside Projects, while also bringing their work into major cultural spaces including Haus der Kunst, the ICA, and the Southbank Centre.
But the broader Life is Beautiful universe extends beyond the core members. It includes a record label, a continuing series of shows and happenings, and three monthly radio shows on independent radio—broadcasts where unreleased sounds are often shared and where new work is created in real time. In those sessions, cdjs and turntables become instruments rather than playback devices, used as samplers to manipulate and layer recordings into something immediate and unrepeatable. It’s a process that mirrors the live events: art made in front of people, not simply presented to them.
Over the past three years, Life Is Beautiful has hosted and featured a striking range of artists and collaborators, including DJ Spanish Fly (UK debut), Tommy Wright III (UK debut), zukovstheworld, Slauson Malone 1, Kenichi Iwasa, May Kershaw, Voice Actor, Lauren Duffus, psychedelic ensemble. Novelist, John Glacier, Pretty V, Jadasea, Lord Tusk, and James Massiah. The list reads less like a lineup and more like a map of shared sensibilities—artists drawn to risk, texture, and the kind of performance that refuses to sit still.
The libiversary festival brings that history into focus while opening the door to what comes next. Across three nights at EartH theatre, audiences can expect a programme shaped by the collective’s signature approach: genre as a suggestion, not a boundary; performance as an environment, not a product. The festival is set to showcase artists from across the life is beautiful constellation, including special guests and collaborators from the project’s first three years—an intentional gathering of voices that have helped define the world aloisius set in motion.
Each member of the collective brings a distinct language to the whole. Aloisius, an improvisation-based experimental artist, dj, producer, and curator, has spent the past decade performing prolifically, organising performances, and facilitating the creation of art in multiple forms. Bianca Scout’s work draws from contemporary and classical dance, combining movement and storytelling through surreal soundscapes, with an intuitive approach that disregards conventional form. Jasper Maurice’s practice carries a volatile physicality—described as “chainsaw guitar” breaking the drum kit apart in pursuit of “the sound a firework makes before it explodes.” Abi asisa, an electroacoustic cellist and improviser, brings a tactile, exploratory relationship to sound. THE NARRATOR works across visual and immersive experience, music, and writing, exploring the healing power of sensory storytelling. NWAKKE—artist, dancer, and dj—moves between songwriting, production, soundscape creation, and improvisation to craft deep listening experiences rooted in emotional honesty and bodily sensation. Isaiah Hull, self-described as a stand-up tragedian, brings sharpness and presence—an energy that can cut through a room and still leave space for reflection.
Taken together, Life is Beautiful feels like an argument for the arts as a shared ritual: a place where disciplines overlap, where improvisation becomes a form of truth-telling, and where community is built through repeated acts of making. With libiversary, the collective is not simply celebrating longevity—it is staging a three-night reminder that experimental work can be expansive, welcoming, and alive.
For further information and tickets, visit: https://gel.now/events/622?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
Main image by Daphne Portokaloglou. Images provided courtesy of Life is Beautiful
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