Margarida Mendes
Resonant Chamber – a cycle of performances on aural spectrality programmed by Margarida Mendes within the European Capital of Culture 2014 project Waiting for… (Archeology of an Idea) will be taking place on October 25 and 26 at Latvian Artist Union, RIXC Media Space and Chomsky Bar.
Evoking the ghost of parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, pioneer
of the Electronic Voice Phenomena, this performance cycle intends
to explore the perceptive abyss of collective subconscious, at
once rendered by the electrification of information and the
emergence of new technologies.
From the invention of the telegraph to the crescent belief in the
deferred materiality of information infrastructures, we have
always had the urge to seek transmission. Navigating through this
turbulent and echoing cloud of meaning, we have aimed to
demystify the wavelength of our thoughts projected on matter,
through the irradiation of our desire and speculations,
themselves entropic. Overlooking this redundancy, we as human
antennae keep tuning our hidden cochleas and otoliths, scanning
the infinitesimal universe while yearning to distinguish signal
over noise in a quest for contact and comprehension of our
spectral existence.
Introducing the work of various artists who explore the terrains
of audible phenomena, sensuous technology, occultism and the
proprioceptive sublime, this cycle aims to summon some of the
technological anxieties extrapolated from the dimension of
parascience to the domain of the planetary.
Engraving of a beached whale by Jacob Matham, 1601.
Such is the case in Emilia Kuryłowic’s performative installation
Euro-ephemera mystical relaxation system, which explores the
transcendence of interfaces and physicality via the development
of a relaxation platform that evokes an ordinary paradise, and
Nuno da Luz’s Reel to Reel = Living Vérité, an audio session
using field recordings of VLF electromagnetic radiation and the
artist’s own collection of satellite’s shortwave broadcasts.
Vanja Smiljanić, who has been researching initiatic rituals and
sects such as the Cosmic People, will contribute with performance
Strobe Antumbra, a poetic guided tour through imaginary void.
This will be followed by Possession Trance, Ryan Jordan’s
hypnotic audio ritual that explores the electrical overload of
neuronal activity via the use of flicker. During The Levitating
Machine – a parallel session that takes the form of a think tank
– issues related to the driving forces beyond this programme will
be informally discussed, amplifying the reflections proposed by
the artists towards the terrain of DIY aesthetics and amateur
science in an instance of dialogue open to all.
Programme:
October 25
6pm Latvian Artist Union – Euro-Ephemera Mystical Relaxation
System, performative installation by Emilia Kuryłowicz
9pm RIXC Media Space – Reel To Reel = Living Vérité, audio
session by Nuno da Luz
October 26
5pm Chomsky Bar – The Levitating Machine, think tank conducted by
Margarida Mendes
9pm RIXC Media Space – Strobe Antumbra, performance by Vanja
Smiljanić + Possession Trance, audio ritual by Ryan Jordan
Admission is free.
Participant biographies:
Ryan Jordan is an electronic artist conducting experiments in
derelict electronics, possession trance, retro-death-telegraphy
and hylozoistic neural computation.
Emilia Kuryłowicz is an artist and a music video director. She
works in a variety of media exploring the ideas of randomness,
entropy and cultural overproduction.
Nuno da Luz is an artist, graphic designer and publisher. His
work circumscribes both aural and visual in the form of sound
events, installations and printed matter, mostly distributed
through ATLAS Projectos (run together with artists André Romão
and Gonçalo Sena) and Palmario Recordings (run together with
artist Joana Escoval).
Vanja Smiljanić is a performance artist and a minister of Cosmic
People for the countries of Former Yugoslavia, Portugal and
former Portuguese colonies.
Margarida Mendes has directed the project space The Barber Shop
in Lisbon since 2009. She is developing research on cybernetics,
geophilosophy, morphogenesis and experimental film.
Margarida Mendes. Photo from personal archive.
The European Capital of Culture project at kim? entails at least
six expert visits from various disciplines – curators,
philosophers, writers, artists and musicians – from all over the
world. They will visit Riga for research and inspiration, as well
as interaction with the local cultural scene. Each of the visits
will manifest differently – there will be creative visits
featuring studio visits, and specific theoretical presentations
as well as performance and exhibition projects.
The cycle of performances programmed by Margarida Mendes is the
second chapter of the project which was launched by the visit of
independent curator and writer Chris Sharp on August, 2013.
kim? Contemporary Art Centre
Maskavas Street 12/1, Riga, LV-1050
kim@kim.lv / www.kim.lv
