[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 and Associação Cultural de Nodar present:

4 Artists by the Paiva river
16 August 08 | 6.00 p.m.
Nodar Artist Residency Center
Nodar, S. Pedro do Sul (Portugal)

A multidisciplinary event in a rural context, organized within the scope of the Nodar Artist Residency Program. Four projects will be presented in several locations on the village and on its surroundings, forming both a spatial and an artistic itinerary through several contemporary expressions, namely sound art, performance, land art, video art and multimedia installation.

Art Projects to be presented:

Viv Corringham (UK)
“Shadow Walks”
Sound Art, Vocal Performance

A sound project with the participation of local inhabitants. The artist asked for volunteers to take her on their “special” walk, a walk that has been repeated many times and has distinct meaning or significance for that person. An initial walk with the person along their selected route, in which their conversations were recorded, was followed by the artist’s solo walk in which she attempted to sense her previous companion’s traces on the walk and to make these audible through her own improvised singing in the location.

Lezli Rubin-Kunda (Israel)
“Marking Stones”
Performance, Visual Arts

The artist wanders through the village, where the local slate stone is used to build walls, houses, pave roads, mark boundaries. She responds to the rocks at different sites by marking incising, drawing onto them, as well as making rubbings from them. A video and a set of photos will document her spontaneous interactions at each site. And for the open house, a live performance will take place along the stone roadway.

Jurate Jarulyte Weiss (Lithuania)
“Dream Objects”
Land Art

Behind every real object there is a dream object” (J. Baudrillard, “The System of Object”). Do we try to adjust our imagination to the real object or a situation? Then, how do our “dream objects” interact with new “real objects” or situations? The project intends to look for a natural and harmonious interaction with a local place and to create some extraordinary “dream like” situation.

Francisco Janes (Portugal)
“Interior”
Mixed-Media Installation

The project was structured around a hike along the river Paiva, from Nodar to the source in Carapito, Moimenta da Beira. Sounds, photos and video were recorded in Nodar and during the walk and will be presented as a mixed-media installation. The elements captured by the artist reflect a subjective vision of the relationship between a body and a landscape as well as the contingency and memory of a trip made against the flow, to the “interior” of a river.

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.