[Nodar003] Three Years In Nodar Context-Specific Art Practices in Rural Portugal 315 pages full color catalogue Accompanying double CD with 20 sound compositions made in Nodar Price: 25 Euros + postage For orders, please contact info@binauralmedia.org The catalog includes essays, critical texts, field diaries, photographs and drawings of more than 40 artists who developed art [...]

Binaural announces a retrospective exhibition of 8 video works created under the Nodar Artist Residency Program. The exhibition, co-organized with Cine Clube de Viseu, happens between July, 11th and August, 31st at the Grão Vasco Museum, located in Viseu (40 km away from Nodar).

The videos will be presented in two modules, that reflect two possible aesthetic approaches to the place: “Nodar: Visions of Sound” presents 4 works that use audio field recordings from Nodar as a means of composing soundscapes; “Nodar: Visions of Space and People” presents 4 works that establish an expressive interaction with the local landscape or communities.

The Grão Vasco museum is a Portuguese state monument and is named after one of the most important Portuguese painters of the Renaissance, Vasco Fernandes (also known as the Grão Vasco), who lived and worked in Viseu. The museum, founded in 1916, occupies the building of the old Seminary, was built in the late 16th century in Mannerist style, and had its interior recently rebuilt by the famous Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Exhibition program:

Nodar: Visions of Sound
2.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Videos by John Grzinich (USA/Estonia), Xesús Valle (Spain), Pali Meursault (France), and Martin Clarke / Alicja Rogalska (UK/Poland)

Nodar: Visions of Space and People
4.00 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Videos by Maile Colbert (USA), Suzanne Caines (Canada), Christine Niehoff (Germany) and Evelyn Müürsepp (Estonia)

To read the exhibition flyer (in Portuguese), click here.

Nodar Artist Residencies Program:
Second residency module of 2008 happens between June, 1st and June 21st in Nodar, S. Pedro do Sul (PT)

The Nodar Artist Residency Center is located in a rural mountain community of Portugal (Nodar, S. Pedro do Sul) and organizes and produces multidisciplinary artistic projects (mainly in the areas of sound, visual and intermedia arts) from both local and international artists, followed by public presentations in the region. During their stay, the resident artists are encouraged to establish interactions with the place, its inhabitants, geographic space and social memory.

The second residency module of 2008 will happen between June, 1st and June, 21st with three artists: the French sound artist Pali Meursault, the German video artist Christine Niehoff and the French performer Cédric Anglaret. The organization invites to Nodar all artists and students who want to meet the resident artists and follow the development of their projects.

On June 21st a final public event will happen, where the three projects will be presented, along with other parallel activities (a pedestrian walk, documentary films projection and a traditional dance party).

(cilck on the image to see it in detail)

Art Projects:

Cédric Anglaret (France)
“A legend that becomes reality”
Performance in public space

Description:
Investigate for local traditional tales, beliefs and legend, choose one and make it come true.

Intentions:
The idea is, in this time of transition, to reactivate the past (traditions) within the present in order to question the future. An old legend that suddenly reappears calls for reactions and interrogations.

Christine Niehoff (Germany)
“Survival kit”
Visual arts

A quasi-instructional video about survival in post catastrophic times. Partly comical and absurd due to the sheer hopelessness of the endeavor (survival chances seem to be pretty slim in many scenarios), partly very serious due to the determination to try, the work will be a collection of video art, writing, photography, sculpture, installation and performance. The project will be made locally in response to the space and people of Nodar.

Pali Meursault (France)
“Walk[s]”
Field recordings, sound art

« Walk[s] » is a project of sound creation and also the research for a form of musical writing, through the meeting with an environment. This research will use the techniques of field-recording, as well as improvisation with found objects, sound installation or documentary, and mainly: walking exploration and encounters. All of this carried out with an extended idea of what an environment is, by questioning the sonorous specificities of space, as well as its geographical, temporal, social or political datum.

Co-organization: Associação Cultural de Nodar | Binaural
Funding: Portuguese Ministry of Culture / General Office for the Arts
Support: MoKS (Estonia) | Criar Raízes Project (Portugal) | S. Pedro do Sul City Council (Portugal)
Media Partner: Viseu TV

How to reach Nodar, see the link.

For lodging near Nodar, see the link.

The Nodar Artist Residency Program for 2008 is about to start and will happen in four different modules between March and October. In this year’s residencies 15 artists from different origins and artist backgrounds were chosen by the selection committee to develop their own projects in the Nodar region. The Nodar Artist Residency Center, located in a rural mountain community of Portugal, organizes and produces the development of multidisciplinary artistic projects (mainly in the areas of sound, visual and intermedia arts) from both local and international artists, followed by public presentations in the region. The resident artists are encouraged to establish interactions with the place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory.

Regarding this year’s projects it is worth mentioning an important presence of sound artists (7) who will develop their personal approaches to the local acoustical heritage and environment, both natural and human. For instance, Viv Corringham and Pali Meursault will deal with different notions of “sound walks” whereas Duncan Whitley will work with field recordings of a local football team to create a site-specific sound installation. Another interesting example is the project proposed by the Austrian musician Noid, a collective musical performance to happen simultaneously in several points of a mountain near Nodar, that will deal with a notion of balancing the performed sounds with the landscape sounds, without destroying what is already present.

One the other hand, an emphasis was given to projects that question and problematize the local social reality, through artistic reflections to be made together with the local communities. We believe that, together with the documentation of the local rural heritage, it is of utmost importance to provoke a free and uncompromised discussion (as it is, by definition, the artistic approach) about the reality and the tension aspects that it involves. In this regard, are worth mentioning the projects to be developed by Francisco Janes, Christine Niehoff and Cédric Anglaret.

Last but not the least, several parallel actions will be developed in each residency, namely in cooperation with the local schools. A final presentation of the artistic works will happen on the last Saturday of each residency module.

Artist residencies calendar for 2008:

31 March – 20 April
John Grzinich (USA / Estonia)*
Toomas Thetloff (Estonia)*
Evelyn Müürsepp (Estonia)*

* Artists invited under a cooperation agreement with the Estonian organization MoKS (http://www.moks.ee)

2 – 21 June
Cédric Anglaret (France)
Christine Niehoff (Germany)
Samuel Ripault (a.k.a. Pali Meursault) (France)

28 July – 16 August
Francisco Janes (Portugal)
Jurate Jarulyte Weiss (Lithuania)
Lezli Rubin-Kunda (Israel)
Viv Corringham (UK)

5 – 25 October
Arnold Haberl (a.k.a. Noid) (Austria) + guests
Wolfgang Dorninger (Austria)
Andrea Brandão (Portugal)
Duncan Whitley (UK)

Link to the complete artist residencies program (artists and projects), here.