"WE DON’T HAVE TO WAIT FOR SPACES TO BE GIVEN TO US"—MYTO, THE ART COLLECTIVE THAT SHOULD BE ON YOUR RADAR

Back in October, MYTO threw their first event—a night that felt like a rallying cry for London underground culture. We’d already spotlighted it in our Hot List, knowing it was something special, but experiencing it firsthand made it clear: this is exactly the kind of event La Fomo is here to champion.

Set in an industrial warehouse in Hackney Wick, the night brought together voices from London’s underground ecosystems to explore authenticity as resistance to the mainstream.

At its core, MYTO is about reclaiming learning through collaboration—bridging music, performance, contemporary art, and club culture. If you’re looking for something that disrupts your thinking and stays with you long after you leave, MYTO should already be on your radar.

For their second edition, kicking off this Saturday, 22 March, they’re going bigger—taking over Ugly Duck’s warehouse space for a two-day programme featuring performances, sculptures, installations, film screenings, workshops, and a "circular" discussion tackling decolonisation, global convergence, decentralisation, and Solarpunk.

I caught up with Mahsa, performance artist and parent of MYTO, to talk about the vision, the movement, and what’s next.

Queer Falafel performance “YOU DON’T LOOK ARAB عربية عربية عربية”

to premiere in London for MYTO Episode 2 on Saturday 22 March at Ugly Duck

Get your tickets for MYTO Episode 2

Hi Mahsa, what made you want to start MYTO?

MYTO takes its name from mitochondria, known as the powerhouse of the cell. Seba, who now presents our show on Netil Radio, also wanted to start a platform, and we realised we had similar visions. So we gave birth to MYTO.

I had been thinking for a few years about creating a platform dedicated to people who haven’t had the traditional path as an artist—those who weren’t handed opportunities or privilege to build a portfolio or a platform for themselves.

I don’t like using the term underrepresented because I think that label comes from the system itself. Instead, I prefer to talk about unheard voices—that feels more accurate. My own journey as an artist was like that—a constant battle against a system that favours those with privilege. There’s also an anti-institutional side to MYTO. We don’t need institutions to validate us as artists. We don’t need them to build a portfolio, to perform or to be seen.

We don’t have to wait for spaces to be given to us—we can create our own. We don’t need residencies handed to us—we can establish our own. And I want to make that possible for others too.

MYTO Episode 1: Mahsa Salali's performance

Image by Davide Edoardo

Why is making learning accessible beyond institutions important to MYTO?

I think it’s about making learning accessible and giving people something they’re not usually exposed to. I didn’t want to just run an event, program a bunch of artists. I wanted it to have more depth, some meaning into it that challenges the audience, so you can take something away from it.

It’s a learning experience rather than, Oh, come look at some pretty work. I want it to be inspiring, for people to engage and learn, because art has this responsibility to challenge people’s minds. There’s always something to take away, whether good or bad, or whatever the reaction is.

I think, for me, that’s the core of what MYTO stands for. It’s about the decolonisation of the mind. I talk about my own mind—how it’s been colonised by so many systems that existed before me. If we’re going to change the way we think, we need the tools and approaches to do that. Be it being a destructor or the creator or the storyteller.

I’m still in the learning process, but I feel like I have an understanding of the tools of deconstruction.

I know I can’t get there on my own. I need others to come with me. If I want to go up, I need to elevate others with me.

MYTO Episode 1: Parma Ham, THEMPRESS, LO-LOW, and Kaiden Ford

Image by Davide Edoardo

You’ve mentioned there is an anti-institutional side to MYTO, what’s the thinking behind that?

This is not a way of competing against the system because that machine has a lot of backups, and funding, but what it fails to do is real outreach to those who truly need it.

What I’ve experienced, and what many others have too, is that sometimes programmers come in and put together a program like, Oh, we want to do something for POC artists, we want to do something for the queer community. But in the end, it often feels like a token gesture.

For me, refusing to be a token gesture is protecting the creativity made by us, for us. We have to remember, we are not a minority, we are the global majority.

One of our producers, Andrea, said something really interesting—we have to make institutions work for us and recognise the value they get from us. That really stuck with me.

MYTO Episode 1: Dahc Dermur viii

Image by Davide Edoardo

For me, it’s about understanding what institutions actually are—what the capitalist machine is and what its purpose. It’s not about fighting against it or trying to tear it down, but about seeing it for what it truly is and not giving it more value than what it offers.

I always go back to this quote from Audre Lorde: “You cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.”

Your next event is called SOLARPUNK—how did the idea for it come together?

One thing about London that stands out to me is its multiculturalism. But if you really look at it, the multicultural side of London exists because of its own diasporas that are a direct result of colonialism and imperialism. And my theory is that this system—this imperialist and colonial mindset—will eventually burn itself down because of the very diasporas it created.

Luiz Felipe Lucas performing Cabezadenegro

to premiere in London for MYTO Episode 2 on Saturday 22 March at Ugly Duck

I wanted to focus on those artists who are deconstructing something, who are constantly engaging with the effects of colonisation and patriarchy through their existence, their art, their practice, and their family histories.

Focusing more on results of their decolonial labour and not glorifying their pain —whether that’s the pain of immigration, transition or whatever reason inspired them to work towards changing the system.

Queer Falafel performance “YOU DON’T LOOK ARAB عربية عربية عربية”

to premiere in London for MYTO Episode 2 on Saturday 22 March at Ugly Duck

I didn’t want to create something that glorifies that pain for people in power. However, if we are going to work on a systematic change, the people in power also need to be invited in. Because at the end of it, the coloniser and the colonised need to work together towards decolonisation.

I also wanted to bring a bit more hope to it.

And that hope was Solarpunk. Justin, our producer, came up with this name, as part of his ongoing research on alternative future worldbuilding.

That creates a kind of dystopian counter-narrative, a vision of different a futures that can question capitalism and its systems, but that operate on different values, different ethics, and a focus on community. And to me, that’s deconstructing—offering an alternative that isn’t just about dismantling, but about building something new.

Get your tickets here

To end, I wanted to ask for your big vision for MYTO, where do you want to take it in the years to come?

Going around the world and glitching the system.

MYTO is like a mycelium— expanding and connecting— inspiring artists, just as so many other platforms and artists have inspired me to do this.

MYTO Episode 1: Mahsa Salali's performance

Image by Davide Edoardo

I’m not saying this is unique, or that I’m the only one doing it. It’s something bigger than me, and that’s beautiful.

Already, a collective from Berlin has reached out for a collab. Another London collective wants to expand and bring something similar to China. it’s amazing—just on our second edition, and we’re already talking about Berlin and China.

In the long term, I want a house. I want to build The House of MYTO—a space that expands into residencies, hub, gallery. That’s definitely the goal. I’m already in talks with someone to programme a residency in Mexico and showcase the work that comes out of it.

I also want to bring performance art back—to challenge the negative reputation that performance art still carries. Experimental and classical music are also often viewed as inaccessible, because of its elitism, but I want to find ways to change that.

Caring for one another is a circular and infinite economy, capitalism can't take that away from us.