Bella

Homo et Bestia

In “Light Load”, an antenna placed on top of a mountain captures the inaudible waves that flow from the antenna’s large electronic distribution. We could also hear the swirling movement of the wind, as well as the cow bells. The cows couldn’t be seen, but they still completed the soundscape. Thus, we conclude and recognize the existence of three layers / levels of energy to be produced and captured: wind, electricity and gas.

Listening to this piece reverses the logic of time: we are carried away by paralysis and contemplation, instead of acting as producers of another energetic layer. The time that settles in the present, carries the old and the new: the cow in its oldest form of food production and sustainability, electricity that revolutionized modern times, and wind energy, as an alternative to fossil fuels, being that the last two would be connected. However, the power of the wind has a more remote history – it was already used to power machines in the 1st century AD; On the contrary, the cow, according to recent studies, can contribute to the production of new and renewed energy, which in this case the artist calls “Light Load”. Could the cow be our futuristic technological breakthrough to invest in?

Bella was welcomed in 2019, in the context of the cycle of residencies “Homo et Bestia”, totally dedicated to artistic interventions on connections between the animal and rural world, in this case in Oliveira de Frades, Portugal.

Bella was born in Rio de Janeiro; she lives and works in São Paulo. Her work proposes the erasure of the boundaries between sound and space, based on a performance focused on the imperceptible movements of reality. He has been developing performances, installations and soundwalks that explore the relationship between physical and conceptual aspects of matter-sound. She often works in collaborations, linking sound with dance, visual arts and multimedia. She has participated in festivals, exhibitions and artistic residencies in Brazil and abroad, such as in New York, Berlin, Chile, Switzerland and Copenhagen, in addition to having her sound productions broadcast on radio stations such as Resonance FM, BBC, Radio Tsonami, Documenta 14 and WFMU.