PAIVASCAPES #1 – PAIVA RIVER SOUND FESTIVAL
Vila Nova de Paiva, Castro Daire, São Pedro do Sul, Arouca, Castelo de Paiva (PT)
March 4th – 8th, 2011
Retrospective exhibition, multimedia concerts, site-specific sound installations, conferences, video works screenings, sound perception activities and environmental walks.
“An innovative and itinerant festival where the sound and multimedia arts will interact with riverside landscapes and communities along the Paiva River, from its source to its mouth.
“Paivascapes #1 will include exhibitions and sound and multimedia concerts related to the Paiva River, by over twenty renowned artists from Europe, America and Asia.”
Right in the heart of one of the cleanest rivers in Europe, the Paiva River (Portugal), Paivascapes #1 – River Paiva Sound Festival is a five-day celebration of cultural innovation and creativity in a rural region known for its rich and ancient traditions. Paivascapes #1, produced by Portuguese sound art organization Binaural/Nodar, is entirely dedicated to the exploration of riverside landscapes and communities through sound and multimedia art.
The festival program comprises five densely filled days and evenings (from March 4th to 8th 2011) and will provide an extensive overview of over 20 art works recently developed along the Paiva River – field recording and electroacoustic compositions, multimedia installations, film screenings and sound performances – and includes relevant historical, anthropological and environmental contextualization of the region through a series of conferences by some key experts and investigators and, last but not least, ancient forms of local oral and musical traditions will also be part of the festival, putting in direct contact with each other exploratory and deep-rooted art forms.
The Paivascapes #1 festival seeks to raise awareness about environmental and social sustainability, about how it is possible to live in a well-balanced interaction with nature: On the one hand, the festival will take the form of an itinerary, following the Paiva River from its source to its mouth, which will allow the audiences have a direct contact with different landscapes and rural communities. On the other hand, during this itinerary, some of the site-specific sound projects will be presented in different locations along the river and a series of environmental walks will take place.
The festival program comprises five densely filled days and evenings (from March 4th to 8th 2011) and will provide an extensive overview of over 20 art works recently developed along the Paiva River – field recording and electroacoustic compositions, multimedia installations, film screenings and sound performances – and includes relevant historical, anthropological and environmental contextualization of the region through a series of conferences by some key experts and investigators and, last but not least, ancient forms of local oral and musical traditions will also be part of the festival, putting in direct contact with each other exploratory and deep-rooted art forms.
These are the highlights of each day of the festival:
A retrospective exhibition with eight contemporary art works, in the areas of sound and multimedia installation, will open on March 4th at 6.00pm at the Museum of the Municipal Auditorium of Vila Nova de Paiva. These works were conceived in art residencies that took place in 2010 in several locations along the Paiva River. It is the first time that a contemporary art exhibition will happen in this region.
On the 5th of March, the highlight will be the opening of a sound and video exhibition at the Rural Museum of Pendilhe (Vila Nova de Paiva Municipality) entitled “Rheîa Zóontes by the Italian multidisciplinary artist Manuela Barile. This work, totally conceived in interaction with the landscape and the people of Pendilhe, evokes the idea of happiness as a flow made by small gestures, work and the connection with the land and asks whether the people who still live in the rural world are closer to the complete happiness in the sense that the Ancient Greeks would give to the word.
On March 6th at 10.00am at the river beach of Fráguas (Vila Nova de Paiva), a sound performance by artists Patrick McGinley, Marja-Liisa Plats, Luís Costa and Tiago Carvalho will take place. This performance, entitled “Reventant: Paiva”, will sonically activate the memory of the place through voice and interaction with architectural structures (buildings, bridges, walls, etc.), with the river water and with found materials (stones, twigs, leaves, etc.).
On March 7th at 2.30pm, the renowned German sound artist Marc Behrens, will present a sound installation entitled “Paiva Players” at the river beach of the village of Espiunca (Arouca Municipality). This work consists of a set of floating speakers that will project a sound installation based on the voices and sounds of various types of local work (wine grape harvest, tree pruning, bread making, smoked sausage making, house building, etc.) of the riverside communities along the Paiva River, which will merge with the sound of the river itself.
On the 8th of March at 3.00pm, a sound installation by Japanese artist Keiko Uenishi, entitled “Paiva Dams”, will be presented at the river beach of Areinho (Arouca Municipality). This work is the result of a field recording session made in 2010 by students of the primary schools of Arouca, as part of the educational program Aldeias Sonoras (www.aldeias-sonoras.org). These recordings were subsequently edited together to form a series of short compositions that will be presented next to the Paiva River through a series of portable radio stations built by the artist.
The Paivascapes #1 Festival is funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General of the Arts, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Portuguese Institute for Social Security, Employment and Professional Training and by two Municipalities that greatly helped this project: Vila Nova de Paiva and Arouca.
The Paivascapes #1 Festival obtained the Council of Europe CECEL label of European cultural merit and has Viseu TV as media partner and Associação S.O.S. Rio Paiva as environmental partner.
The tickets for the Paivascapes #1 Festival are 5 Euros per day and 20 Euros for the whole festival. They are selling at www.ticketline.sapo.pt, FNAC, Worten, Agência Abreu, C.C. Dolce Vita, Megarede, El Corte Inglés.
Come and explore the Paiva River with all your senses!
List of participating artists:
Alicja Rogalska (PL), Anna Hints (EE), Charles Stankievech (CA), Craig Dongoski (US), Ignaz Schick (DE), Jez riley French (GB), John Grzinich (US), Katherine Liberovskaya (CA), Lasse-Marc Riek (DE), Luis Costa (PT), Maile Colbert (US), Manuela Barile (IT), Marc Behrens (DE), Marja-Liisa Plats (EE), Martin Clarke (GB), Masayo Kajimura (DE), o.blaat (JP), Patrick McGinley (US), Phill Niblock (US), Rui Costa (PT), Rui Silveira (PT), Sérgio Cruz (PT), Tiago Carvalho (PT), William Lamson (US), Yasuno Miyauchi (JP).
List of key speakers:
Tiago Monteiro-Henriques (PT), Sérgio Caetano (PT), Marcos Medalon (PT), Nuno Martins (PT), Domingos Cruz (PT), Tiago Carvalho (PT)
Festival’s website: http://www.paivascapes.org