CAMPOS MAGNÉTICOS
Santiago de Chile, 2019
For the 14th Media Art Biennial of Santiago, the public program was conceived as a magnetic field that unified the 15 different venues where the biennial was taking place, a thread that would intertwine the contents of spaces, artists and scientists, creating dialogue among the artworks and impelling their impact on the collective consciousness of the audience.
Initially conceived as a series of media arts performances, due to the “estallido social” that took place the day after the opening of the event, the performances were cancelled, and instead we created a series of events that acted as rituals of coming together, using the works and bodies as artefacts of transmutation of the events happening in the city.
Serpiente Chí | Nicole L’Huillier + La Chimuchina | October 17th , 2019 | MNBA
A procession was carried from the Fine Arts Museum to the Contemporary Arts Museum (the buildings are connected) for one of the opening nights of the 14th Biennial.
Artist Nicole L’Huillier (MIT Media Lab) led the performance with a magnetic-wave microphone, which was simultaneously amplified through a portable speaker.
The following day, 18th of October, a revolution started in Santiago, and the Museum had to close its doors for weeks. After this experience, the museum adapted all the biennial performances into rituals.
Ascospora | Alexandra Mabes | MBVM
Ascospora is a performance that speaks of individual and collective transformation. It seeks to be an exercise not only performative but also symbolic for those who embody it. Transparency of action, transparency of being, seeking honesty in inhabiting space. It is precisely in that stillness, in that tranquillity, in that transparency, that the sense of urgency arises- a subtle urgency that leads the performers to gather around the water, this ancestral wisdom, the main ally and collaborator for the creation of the fungal world, which is currently at risk and being misused. That is why Ascospora is then a prayer for water.
Constelaciones a la Muerte | José Bidegain | MAVI
The universe has existed for over 4.500 million years. Since its initial explosion, it has continued to expand and develop, though it has met countless deaths along the way. What is death then, if not only a transformation?
By recognising the potential in the act of dying, we connect with the primitive energy manifested through our own matter. Death is consciously called upon to declare a rite of passage from one state to another.
Animita | José Francisco Calbacho | MAVI
What space do we grant Death in contemporary societies? Mostly feared, covered and neglected, our communities today do not allow us the space for grief. Funerals are fast and expensive; we are buried in foreign grounds together with hundreds of unknowns.
The artist uncovers this taboo by positioning himself in a public space disguised as a colourful, cheerful altar, a place for pride in death. He dedicated the ritual to all the victims of HIV, a disease that is still focused on discrimination and secrecy.
Resonancias | Amelia Ibanez | MAC
A ritual in which performers dialogue with the stars, the building, and Sebastián Maqueira's work. These three elements nurture the spatial composition of the bodies, creating an action that runs like water, easy times. A simple, repetitive structure gives us access to gestures charged with humanity.
Body Listening | Nico Trompe and Valentina Wong | Museo del Sonido
Does the sound come from inside or outside? How can sound transform the perception of my own environment? What information from the past can sound carry? Valentina Wong embodied these questions through an interpretive choreography in response to the instrument's deep vibrations.
Umbral | Valentina Wong + Denise Lira | MNBA
It results from moving a piece of the sea to the city centre, offering a sensory journey that invites us to rethink our perspective on the marine ecosystem, an unknown space. The installation aims to make the invisible visible by amplifying the acoustic pollution that affects cetaceans. The work is proposed as an immersive metaphor that reveals how mass media floods our perception with images and sounds.
Valentina Wong interpreted Lira’s concept through her own body, responding to the installation's sound and texture.