Magnetic Fields of the Fourth World

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. I was invited to create the invisible thread that would intertwine the contents of spaces, artists and scientists, creating dialogue among the artworks and impulsing their impact on the collective consciousness of the audience.

It was a program of sound and performance where artists connected themselves to the concept of The Fourth World from non-functional voices. Non-commercial sounds, transgender, affected and mutated by an environment in crisis.

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. The procession was carried out in the form of the Andean ritual “Bailes Chinos”, which involved repeatedly blowing a complex geometry flute and following a choreography. The sound from these flutes is known for generating a strenuous sound called “riven sound”, which was used to connect to the cosmos in times of harvest.

Artist Nicole L’Huillier (MIT Media Lab) led the performance with a magnetic-wave microphone that was simultaneously amplified with a portable speaker. We also decided to send the sound of the Loa River to a radio signal using a pirate radio and selected people in the audience tuned in to it at the moment of the procession.

All of these sounds and the movements from the procession saturated the sonic landscape within the museum and then in the neighbouring museum, which had its own opening. Due to the physical performance and strong breathwork, the people participating in the procession entered a trance that culminated with an improvised choir of voices, taking advantage of the beautiful reverberation provided by the old buildings.

The following day, 18th of october, a revolution started in the city of Santiago, and the Museum had to close its doors for weeks. After this experience, all the performances for the biennial were adapted into rituals.

Ascospora | Alexandra Mabes | October 25th , 2019 | 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, the transparency of being, seeking honesty in the way of inhabiting space. It is precisely in that stillness, in that tranquility, in that transparency, where 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 | November 7th, 2019 | MAVI

It is said that the universe exists for over 4.500 million years. Since its initial explosion, it continues to expand and develop, although in its history it has met countless deaths. What is death then, if not only a transformation?

By becoming aware of the potential contained in the act of dying, we get in contact 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.

Sound is used as an instrument for frequencies manipulation, opening a portal through the vibration of the mouth harp and constant rhythms, that were produced with pans and pots, sound that characterized the public manifestations of the revolution.

Animita | José Francisco Calbacho | December 3rd, 2019 | MAVI

What is the space 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 tabu 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.

In the style of traditional divine chanting from Andean rituals, a list of common names was voiced during the whole procession, calling upon everyone who had died anonymously, hidden, or in shame.

Body Listening | Nico Trompe and Valentina Wong | October 15th, 2019

| Museo del Sonido

For the “Listening Focus” opening night, Nico Trompe was invited to perform mouth harps as in questioning how do we listen? 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 with an interpretative choreography in response to the ancient vibrations of the instrument.