Avant-garde Audiovisual Marathon: Part 1

With regard to the Second Wave of Artists of the 18th Edition, focused mainly on creators, studios and collaborations in the field of visual art, we review the immersive experiences, installations, environmental design and more art and technology proposals that await us at A/Visions 2 and Nocturne ³⁶⁰.

In this first part we focus on the Live A/V of this Second Wave and on the artists and studios that will carry out the visual and setting counterpart during the performances of different producers on Thursday, November 24 at Anahuacalli Museum, and Saturday, November 26 at Quarry Studios.

µ-Ziq & ID:MORA ^UK+ES

2022 marks one of the most intense and interesting moments in Mike Paradinas' career. In addition to the 25th anniversary reissue of his emblematic Lunatic Harness (Planet Mu, 1997), this IDM pioneer gives us an extensive premiere opus with the album Magic Pony Ride and its companion EPs Hello and Goodbye, his return to Planet Mu after 13 years. Bringing new emotional nuances to µ-Ziq's relentlessly distinctive sound, this revival comes with a perfect visual complement, created by experimental visualist ID:MORA, and just had its world premiere at Prague's iconic Lunchmeat Festival. With an array of 3D characters and locations drawn from the wildest, most outgoing corner of the ID:MORA imagination, the pieces of µ-Ziq's complex sonic puzzle explode in a fast-paced and captivating audio-visual experience. Together, µ-Ziq & ID:MORA take us on a necessary journey to the opposite extreme of darkness and introspection: yes, a state-of-the-art experience to smile, trip, be surprised and be happy.

Concepción Huerta & z.vektor + Milena Pafundi ^MX+AR

Present Travelers

Travelers takes us on a journey through a whole new speculative ecosystem with our senses. This thickness of meta-natural shapes, sounds and textures is the result of the alchemy between three multimedia artists: the visuals of z.vektor, the music of Concepción Huerta and the light setting of Milena Pafundi. This mixture of digital and analog media gives life to synthetic botanical entities that mutate under a dense and hypnotic sound narrative, in an environment with optimal conditions for their constant evolution.

As a live performance, Travelers is also experienced as the ideal intersection of the trajectory of the three artists. This year z.vektor has presented its commitment to speculative architecture and generative visuals with large pieces and exhibitions in spaces such as CCE México, while Concepción Huerta premiered Harmonies from Betelgeuse (Umor Rex, 2022) after her residency at Elektronmusik Studion in Stockholm. Complementing this experience is Milena Pafundi, a transdisciplinary artist who, in addition to visuals and cinematography, has created lighting for theater, dance and other live arts.

Rafael Anton Irisarri & Florence To ^US+UK

Present ATAARPHONOAK

With ATAARPHONOAK, a new performance by sound artist Rafael Anton Irisarri developed in collaboration with multimedia artist Florence To, the duo delivers a visceral new audiovisual piece whose concept revolves around the manifestation of solar particles entering the Earth's atmosphere, to reveal the oscillatory motion of its orbit. Thus, ATAARPHONOAK is enjoyed as an audiovisual experience to explore a small corner of the Universe and, also, a speculative astronomy documentary, narrated from the aural experimentation of Irisarri and the abstract cinematography of Florence To.

Rafael Anton Irissari's work is mainly associated with post-minimalist music and drone, exploring dense layers of reverb and delays, with a highly cinematic focus. Florence To is an experimental artist who works with space, light and sound as elements to trigger specific cognitive and emotional responses.

Guillaume Coutu-Dumont ^CA/QC

Presents Les Empires

Les Empires is the new concept album (soon to be released) and a Live A/V album firmly rooted in the mythology, memories of cartoons and childhood soundtracks of composer, percussionist and producer Guillaume Coutu-Dumont. With retro-futuristic and very sci-fi sounds, Guillaume creates a hypnotic and nostalgic atmosphere, reminiscent of krautrock veterans Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze. Les Empires was presented at the most recent Edition of MUTEK Barcelona, ​​with "delicate percussions and constant repetition taken to the vertiginous limit of the loop and the edge of the non-existent drop, which turned this hour of live performance into a spell" that now reaches A/Visions 2.

A student of electroacoustic and Latin and classical percussion, Coutu-Dumont was introduced to the Montreal techno and microhouse scene, before leaving for Europe, where his project Guillaume & The Coutu Dumont emerged, with which he explores Latin, jazz and house influences. Since his return to Montreal, Coutu-Dumont has alternated between various live projects, notably as part of the Auflassen trio (which premiered at MUTEK in 2020) and the Flabbergast duo, in collaboration with Vincent Lemieux.

MAOTIK ^FR

Mathieu Le Sourd aka MAOTIK, is a French digital artist focused on creating immersive environments, interactive installations, digital architectural sculptures, and audiovisual performances that play at the intersection of art, science, and technology. In recent years, his work has been presented at international festivals and institutions around the world. His pieces and performances are also an essential part in the history of the MUTEK Network since its inception.

Melissa Santamaría ^MX

The infinite possibilities of generative art are the canvas on which Melissa Santamaría unfolds her synaesthetic imagination. Psychedelic colors, movement and textures that fluctuate to complement/contrast sounds, architectural spaces and emotions. With an immersive, vibrant style that takes up naturalistic aspects from a very alien perspective, Melissa Santamaría's visual signature can be found accompanying an impressive diversity of musical acts ranging from Actress, Andy Stott and Flying Lotus, to Warpaint and Ty Segall.

MFO ^DE

With a balanced mix of new media and old technology, Marcel Weber aka MFO builds complex visual environments. Analog projectors, celluloid, mirrors, paint, chemicals and digital alchemy: since 2001, MFO has been fusing images, light and space into powerful visual concepts for live A/Vs, stage sets, video art and installations. Thus, MFO has become a key element of the experience at avant-garde festivals such as CTM, MUTEK, Unsound and as part of the Berlin Atonal team, where he directs lights and visuals. His deep and evocative style has also been part of exhibitions in spaces such as The Barbican, Center Pompidou and CERN. In Edition 18 of MUTEK MX we will be able to enjoy her art twice: first as part of Caterina Barbieri's Live A/V with Ruben Spini in A/Visions 2 (Thursday, November 24 at the Anahuacalli Museum) and as part of the visual intensity of Nocturne ³⁶⁰ (Saturday, November 26 at Quarry Studios).

Ruben Spini ^IT

Following his collaboration with MFO to create the visual atmosphere for Caterina Barbieri's Live A/V in A/Visions 2, multimedia artist Ruben Spini also brings his ethereal and intoxicating style to Nocturne ³⁶⁰. In addition to his long-term collaboration with Barbieri, for whom he has also created all the videos and visuals from the Spirit Exit album, Spini is an editor and writer, with a background in software engineering. This multidisciplinary approach translates into a work that, from the visual or the textual, explores the relationship between communication, perception, poetics and information theory.

JS Baillat ^CA/QC

Jean-Sébastien Baillat is a fundamental part of the recent history of MUTEK MX. He has been the mind behind much of the Nocturne show's set design, lighting and visuals since 2013; he has also presented live A/Vs like Baya and like Baillat, Cardell & Fills. His overflowing visual imagination, which has kept him at the forefront for fifteen years and has earned him more than 160 international awards, has accompanied countless live performances and DJ sets within the MUTEK festival network, making him a fundamental part of the innovative spirit of MUTEK. this platform.