Aresta. 2018

Sound/Light Installation/Performance

7m x 4,5m x 3m. 12 channel sound, saxophones, steel, wood, speaker cones, LEDs, dmx controllers, custom software, custom electronics, dimmers

Aresta transforms a series of saxophones into a multiphonic, autonomous ensemble. Vilanova, trained as a classical saxophonist, experimented with the gap between the gesture of playing and its perceptibility, with the relationship between his body, the instrument and both their limitations.

In Aresta, saxophones are suspended from pyramidal structures, and each produces its own percussion, breath, mechanical noise and notes that have risen from its metallic body. Every instrument has been given its own voice. As these fragmented sounds build up, a neural network trained on 352 Bach chorales creates a harmonised melody in real time, with the individual voices converging into a collective performance.

Alongside a synchronised light choreography, Aresta turns into a self-directed, bodiless show. When a musician intervenes with their instrument, their breath and percussive gestures enter into dialogue with the ensemble: a set-up at once sculptural and theatrical, in a questioning of the performer’s own obsolescence.

Credits

Commission: FUGA
Residency: Etopia Center for Arts and Technology

Idea, Construction, Sound/Light Composition, Software, Performance: Marc Vilanova

Curation: Santiago Latorre

Production: Eduardo Pérez

Metal Production and Design: 2monos

AI Technology: DeepBach, created by Gaëtan Hadjeres (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)

Software Support: Alfredo Ardia

Installation Support: Nieves Arilla, Mateu Targa

Saxophone Quartet (recording): María Luisa Cuenca, Maria Elisabet Serra, Josep Subirats, Raúl Cuartero

Special Thanks: Alberto Bernal, Equipo Etopia, Carlos Maria Romero, Adriana Dumon, Kandis Friesen, Igi Ayedun, Mar Medinyà, Irene Anglada, Joan Albert Gisbert, Familia Vilanova Pinyol

Text: Ana Prendes

Support: Konvent.0

Video Director: Carles Pons

Director of Photography: Fran Ríos

First AC/Focus Puller: Ivi Koyck

Second Camera Assistant: Mayté Pardo

Sound Mixing: Santiago Latorre

Colorist: Lluís Vilamazàn

Still Photography: Alexandre Furcolin

Photos: Anna Benet

Available for booking