mare/Fri., 30 June – Sun., 2 July 2023
Sound Festival for the Elephant
A Meander. (Com)positions with the River: Act III
Where Along the banks of the Isarco river, via Trento, Bolzano
Artists
Futurefarmers, Ellis Blauw, Guillermo Galindo, Ultra Alto, RiverliversUpcoming
As the third Act off “A Meander, (com)positions with the river” by Futurefarmers, a Sound Festival for the Elephant invites visitors to explore the life force of the river and its perpetual motion as an energy that can be drawn upon to explore new forms of creation and relationships. The festival takes place in the framework of Lungomare’s ongoing Project FLUX – River interventions and explorations.
The festivals’ program that unfolds over the course of three days includes a procession that carries the elephant (an elephant-shaped construction) like a sacred statue to its destination on the banks of the Isarco. Specially created by Futurefarmers, the fluid, slouching and bulky architecture of the animal arrives on the banks of the river to lie down exhausted after a long journey, where a group of artists and citizens awaits with a feast of music and refreshment that can restore their tired and thirsty limbs. The time that the elephant rests by the riverside will be accompanied by narrations, installations and concerts, transforming the riverbank by via Trento into a central place of meeting and exchange.
Futurefarmers, and a variation of local and international groups and artists (including Ellis Blauw and Guillermo Galindo), contribute to a program of performances, installations and workshops that connect with water to make visible and tangible how the energy of the river can be used as a transformative force for the urban community.
Futurefarmers is an international group of artists, architects, anthropologists and farmers with a common interest in creating frameworks of participation that recalibrate our cultural compass. They work in contexts where intricate social structures are intertwined with city infrastructure and the complexities of collective memories embedded in (and around) a site. Through processes of participatory research, critical reflection and sustained public programming, hidden potentials held within these scenographies can emerge. The process of negotiation between diverse groups of people and across cultures is seminal in grounding this work and the communities that co-create them. Futurefarmers often creates relational sculptures that provide playful entry points and “tools” for participants to gain insight into deeper fields of inquiry – not only to imagine, but to participate in and initiate change in the places we live. These “tools” or sculptural props form a visual and material language that connects to a very immaterial, relational practice.
Ellis Blauw is an artist and performer who often works through collaborative practices in music and set design. She received a master’s degree in ceramics from Phiko (MAD faculty) in Hasselt in 1995 and has continued to take courses in textile art, figure theater, light technology, bioplastics and mycelium. As a self-taught artist, she experiments with electronics, circuit-bending and do-it-yourself circuits, instant-composition in musical landscapes related to dance projects. Driven by a fascination with natural processes, she sews, cultivates and assembles multimedia sculptures, agglomerates of mixed media and recycled materials, giving life to a fabulous imagery in which mythology, archetypes and shamanism merge with contemporary themes in open, playful and interactive forms.
Guillermo Galindo is a post-Mexican composer whose work redefines conventional boundaries between music and composition, proposing intersections between art, politics, humanitarian issues, spirituality and social awareness. His acoustic work, including two orchestral compositions commissioned by OFUNAM and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra and Choir, solo instrumental works, two operatic works, sound sculptures, electro-acoustic music, immersive installations, and live improvisation, is combined with the production of graphic scores and three-dimensional cyber-totemic sculptural sound objects. His work has been exhibited in museums and art biennales internationally, including documenta14 (2017) and Pacific Standard Time (2017), and is now part of the permanent collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Florida, LACMA in Los Angeles, California, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.
ULTRA ALTO is an international collective, focusing on dancing, free expression and art.
We set out to shape experiences, that are ULTRA as in “beyond” and “outside the norm” in the area of ALTO Adige. We want to create spaces full of creativity and joy and free of boundaries and prejudice. Our journey started just a year ago when four friends came together with the wish to feel the music and move their bodies one last time before autumn arrives. A WhatsApp group was setup. Quickly, more and more people joined and the desire became a need: We all want to Dance, Interact, and Get to Know People.
By now many peaceful and environmental-aware dance sessions happened and nurtured us throughout the year. We experimented with different formats, raves, silent raves, silent nature dances, festivals, demonstrations and even snow dance sessions, raving through cold winter days, lighting them up with warm and melodic vibes.
The collective grew both in size and strength – accompanying new creative heads – all to bring more joyful, convivial, and liberating moments to Bolzano and Alto Adige. We connected with local creatives to extend our formats, enriching them with discussion rounds, workshops, bazaars, space design and jam sessions.
Program:
::: Friday, 30.06.2023 :::
Procession
5 pm Departure of the Elephant from Lungomare with Futurefarmers and Ultra Alto
7 pm Arrival and tuning at the riverside of Isarco
8 pm Sonisarco. Animate Through Presence installation by Ultra Alto
6–10 pm sound installations tuning by Guillermo Galindo, Ellis Blauw
::: Saturday, 01.07.2023 :::
Resonance
8 pm Rippled Voices Sound performance by Ellis Blauw, accompanied by Fly Fishing with Riccardo Favaro
6-10 pm Scenography by Futurefarmers
Sound installations by Guillermo Galindo, Ellis Blauw
Sonisarco. Animate Through Presence installation by Ultra Alto
Riverlivers installation with Lorenzo Oliva Laffargue, Gaia D’Inzeo, Sarah Binkowski (UniBz)
::: Sunday, 02.07.2023 :::
Ecstatic Ensembles
8 pm Octophant sound performance by Guillermo Galindo
6–10 pm Scenography by Futurefarmers
Sound installations by Guillermo Galindo, Ellis Blauw
Sonisarco. Animate Through Presence installation by Ultra Alto
Eisack’s Elixir’s Tea Bar by Clara Milla
Moroccan Food by Bahjia
Join the actions. Any contribution is welcome. Feel free to bring a gift for the Elephant.
