Far back in ancient times, the territory of the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula formed something close to a territorial and cultural unit. This fact would be practically irrelevant if we didn’t still confirm a wide range of connections between Portugal north of the River Mondego, Galicia, Asturias and Castilla y León, which are clearly evident in rural contexts. Types of crops and livestock, tools, vernacular architecture, words, forms of community organisation, etc. etc. give rise to obvious feelings of familiarity (but we also do or say this or that!).
The origin of Binaural Nodar was intrinsically linked to this feeling of cross-border cultural attachment, through informal artistic meetings held in the village of Nodar between 1999 and 2003, with the participation of artists such as Rui Costa (Nodar/Lisbon), Iñaki Ríos (Valladolid), Pablo Rega (La Coruña) and Nilo Gallego (León). These and other meetings were decisive in designing the intervention methodology of Binaural Nodar, which was founded at the end of 2024.
In the first few years of the association’s work, several artists from the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula were hosted, such as Roi Fernández (Pontevedra), Xexús Valle (Vigo), Nilo Gallego (León), Cristina Tascón and Ingrid Quiroga (León), Iñaki Ríos and Natividad Plasencia (Valladolid), and in 2007 the Fronte[i]ras festival was co-organised, an artistic and curatorial reflection on the concept of the border, conceived between two cultural associations from both sides of the Galician-Portuguese border, Binaural Nodar and Alg-a.
Between 2015 and 2019, the cultural connections of the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula were expanded through the organisation of five editions of the Ocupai Festival – Iberian Festival of Art and Action, in which dozens of companies and artists from Portugal and the Spanish regions mentioned above were programmed, such as Jorge Pascual, the somospeces collective, Nilo Gallego, La Xata la Rifa, Marina Oural Villapol, Pequeña Victoria Cen, Pandereteras Gritsanda, Igmig, Isaac Cordal, etc. etc.
In 2021, an artist residency was organised with artistic collectives from the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, Binaural Nodar (Portugal), Oficina Galega de Outros Asuntos do Movemento (Galicia), La Xata la Rifa (Asturias) and Somospeces (León), who shared aspects of their respective territories and the artistic forms they have developed (poetry, dance, music, performance, sound art, video, etc.) with the other collectives, with the aim of creating some results that might represent a certain idea of being-in-common.
In 2022, the artistic project “De Nodar em Nodar” (“From Nodar to Nodar”) by Luís Costa was conceived, which explored links between two rural places with the same toponym located 400 km apart, one in São Pedro do Sul and the other in the municipality of Friol (Galicia, Spain). In the same year, the artist residency “Ruralidades Limítrofes” (“Neighbouring Ruralities”) was hosted in the municipality of Viseu, a project by Luís Costa and the poet and performer from León, Jorge Pascual.
2006
Artist Residency: Coletivo Fora do Tempo (Spain)
Coletivo Fora do Tempo: Bucle
Multidisciplinary collective of sound and performance art from León, Spain, directed by Nilo Gallego. All instruments, sound and performance art interpreted by Tamara Rodriguez, Iván Ugidos, Mirian Vega, Marta Alaiz, Alfredo Escapa, Noemi Fidalgo, Alfonso Oblanca, and Nilo Gallego.
Pushing the Medium #2 international symposium in Nodar (Portugal)
Pushing the Medium #2
The symposium “PUSHING THE MEDIUM #2” (PTM #2) is an initiative that brought together a group of Spanish sound and visual artists linked to new media, which took place in Nodar, S. Pedro do Sul, between September 15th and 24th.
Artist Residency: Silvia Zayas (Spain)
Tríptico 00
Silvia Zayas (Spain) is a young poet, translator, and performance artist. She has published several books and conceived and directed various theatrical performances such as Se me Alarga la Danza, El Mientras del Teatro, and Chovernos. She was also one of the coordinators of the experimental radio project Radio Tutuguri, a three-day performance and visual poetry project.
Artist Residency: Iñaki Ríos, Nati Plasencia & Rui Costa (Spain)
Composição Electrónica
Rui Costa collaborated with Spanish musician Iñaki Ríos, with whom he developed electronic composition systems programmed in Max / MSP, Lisa, and Csound, and developed a series of site-specific works in Nodar.
Artist Residency: Roi Fernández (Spain)
A_proxy_mations
“A_proxy_mations” consisted of an investigation into migratory movements from the peripheries to urban centers. The village of Nodar and the city of Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain) were proposed for the exchange. The project used a community tank as an interface.
Artist Residency: Cristina Tascón and Ingrid Quiroga (Spain)
Aproximación al Territorio
A transdisciplinary intervention was proposed on the socio-environmental relationship of the village of Nodar. An approach was made to the village inhabitants, attempting to identify how they interact with each other and with the territory. Through these interactions, associations between people and places were discovered.
Artist Residency: Pablo Rega and Oscar de Paz (Spain)
DINAmo
“DiNAmo” is an installation project that used the geographical resources and characteristics of a place and its identity. In this case, it was the Paiva River, near Nodar. The proposal was to create an installation that used the river as a source of energy and simultaneously generated content from it. A dynamo was built to supply electricity to the installation, which was based on light and sound.
2007
Artist Residency: Xesús Valle (Spain)
Dialogos tactiles
The project he presented was based primarily on the artist’s interaction with the environment of Nodar, beyond field recording, in which the artist’s role is merely that of a spectator.
Artist Residency: Amaya González (Spain)
Transgresión
About some of the things I could have done here: I could have written the word “nail” over and over again as many times as necessary, creating a line that would fill the space, which would have a similar result to my installation and would look something like this (although without quotation marks): “pregoogerppregoogerppregoogerppregoogerppregoogerppregoogerppregoogerpprego”.
Artist Residency: Nilo Gallego and Noemi Fidalgo (Spain)
Ação Sonora com Pastor, Cabras, Cão
Nilo Gallego and Noemi Fidalgo carried out an artist residency in Nodar in 2007 with two sound and musical interventions that sought interaction with the environment and the participation of the inhabitants of Nodar.
2013
Artist Residency: Patxi Valera (Spain)
Aquófono
The Aquófono project. Music is inspired by the Five Movements theory and represents a complete sequence through various natural and sound elements, as a dynamic proposal in continuous creation-recreation of the universe in motion.
2015
OCUPAI Festival: Nilo Gallego and Amalia Fernández (Spain)
Perrita China
“Perrita China” (“Little Chinese Dog”) is a collaborative project between Amalia Fernández and Nilo Gallego, a desire for intimacy and an impulse of curiosity towards each other. Its theme is collaboration itself. They do things in unison, for the pleasure of seeing how similar and yet how different they are.
OCUPAI Festival: Isaac Cordal (Spain)
CEMENT ECLIPSES Street Art
OCUPAI Festival: Colectivo somospeces (Spain)
Télépathie
Télépathie was a testing ground for decision-making and creating symbolic games for life. A place for awareness, from where we imagine, from where our multiple personalities and realities can take shape.
OCUPAI Festival: Aldao Lado (Spain)
Cabaret lírico-poético
María Lado and Lucía Aldao are Aldaolado, music, poetry, and humor. The young Galician women of Aldaolado are in favor of breaking with the stereotype of poetry as virtuoso display for an educated minority. They freely play with demystification and incite expressive combat.
OCUPAI Festival: Writing in the Sky (Spain)
Recital Poético-Musical-Astronómico Estíbaliz Espinosa, Patxi Valera e Nacho Muñoz
2016
OCUPAI Festival: Somospeces Collective (Spain)
Happy
“Happy” is a performing arts project that aims to build a place for play and reflection on the meaning of being together. Since the logic of power thrives on controlling visibility, “Happy” has created “spaces of appearance.” The project was based on a three-day workshop with six local participants, artists and non-artists alike, who set in motion an action/party that served to reflect, learn, criticize, and ironize on the premises that establish the functioning of the world we live in.
OCUPAI Festival: Jorge Pascual & Mónica Jorquera (Spain)
Poética en Supermercados
OCUPAI Festival: Little Victoria Central (Spain)
Gigante
OCUPAI Festival: Jorge Pascual (Spain)
Pilasía
OCUPAI Festival: Nacho Muñoz (Spain)
City Piano
CITY PIANO is an invitation to establish a sensitive relationship and connection with the city through sound, turning listening into a work of art.
Artist Residency: Nacho Muñoz (Spain)
Ateliê de expressão vocal e instrumental
Nacho Muñoz developed a vocal and instrumental expression workshop with the women of the ethnographic costume and singing group of Várzea de Calde.
2017
OCUPAI Festival: La Xata la Rifa (Spain)
La Ola Flotante
The Asturian collective LA XATA LA RIFA (Asturias), dedicated to performance, dance, and musical exploration, was invited to present a work during the two days of the OCUPAI festival.
OCUPAI Festival: F.I.L.O (Spain)
Free Improvised Loud Objective
F.I.L.O. is capable of moving from the most delicate moments to the most abrupt and unexpected, exploring the sonic potential of their instruments to the utmost.
2018
OCUPAI Festival: Chefa Alonso (Spain)
O fio da paisagem
OCUPAI Festival: Pandereteras Gritsanda (Spain)
Tertúlia Musical Transfronteiriça
OCUPAI Festival: Marina Oural, Chefa Alonso, Irene Coto & Mónica Cofiño (Spain)
Juana_InspiraciónsTrio
OCUPAI Festival: Somospeces Collective (Spain)
Nudo Desnudo
‘Nudo Desnudo’ is a contemporary stage creation about the diversity of bodies and words that make up our society, where the khipu (Quechua word for knot) becomes a material that allows new realities to be created, focusing on bodies and their relationship with words in motion. It is a participatory anthropological performance in which attention to others, common rhythm, voice, breathing, touch, and movement become constituent actions of the social sphere, where words are given body and the body is given voice.
OCUPAI Festival: ArtesaCía Transmedia (Spain)
Chola a It Girl
Chola a It Girl is a production inspired by the lives of many women in rural areas, by their nonconformity, talent, strength, and personality, but also by their tireless search for opportunities to grow and learn.
2019
OCUPAI Festival: Victor Casas (Spain)
Que la noche es mía
Que la noche es mía (The Night is Mine) is a documentary that highlights the importance of the cultural heritage derived from the relationship between wolves and humans on the Iberian Peninsula. The documentary recreates a night in the company of people of different ages, backgrounds, and professions, united by words that travel from old kitchens to squares and theaters, with a wolf as the protagonist.
Artist Residency: Carlos Herrero (Spain)
Música Transhumante
Pitchers, flutes, and tambourines echo a world that is disappearing. Transhumant rhythms, archaic, pagan, and wild. A tribute to the indigenous peoples of Iberia and the diversity of their roots.
2021
Artist Residency: Esquina Noroeste (Spain)
Esquina Noroeste
Four artistic collectives from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, Binaural Nodar (Portugal), Oficina Galega de Outros Asuntos do Movemento (Galicia), La Xata la Rifa (Asturias), and Somospeces (León), who follow a common path, in some cases with fifteen years of collaboration, came together between November 1st and 10th in the Portuguese village of Vouzela for an artist residency in which they shared with the other collectives aspects of their respective territories and the artistic forms they have been developing (poetry, dance, music, performance, sound art, video, etc.), and created some results that represent a certain idea of being-in-common and a manifesto in defense of contemporary culture in a rural context that resists in the northwestern corner of a peninsula as extensive as it is diverse.
2023
Artist Residency: Luís Costa and Jorge Pascual (Spain)
Ruralidades Limítrofes
An artist residency by Jorge Pascual and Luís Costa, held in eight places on the outskirts of the city of Viseu: Pascoal, Abraveses, Santiago, Rio de Loba, Ranhados, Repeses, Orgens, and Campo. The fieldwork carried out as part of a creative project entitled “Ruralidades Limítrofes” (Border Ruralities) brought together poetic texts, chronicles, photography, video, soundscapes, and oral tradition.