ARS ELECTRONICA GARDEN BARCELONA 2021

Opening: September 7th, 7 p.m.

Dates: from September 8th until September 19th

Time: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Venue: Carrer d’Espronceda 326, Nave 4, 5 & 10, Barcelona

Free entrance. No prior registration is required

ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture, following its mission of international cooperation and creation of innovation synergies, participates for the second consecutive year in Ars Electronica Gardens, with an exhibition proposal that is based on two concepts, first in the challenge of the Festival: exploring new formats accessible and interactive digital platforms that create inclusive participation in an entertaining and attractive way, and second in the vision of New European Bauhaus, an initiative of which Espronceda is an official partner and that wants to generate more artistic, sustainable and inclusive forms of coexistence.

The connection of the digital world with the physical and natural world, with its sustainability within complexity, is expressed in the main project of the exhibition: OLEA by Solimán López, which connects blockchain digital creation with the organic synthesis of DNA and its inclusion in the cycles of life through olive oil: health, culture and myth. This natural connection is also present in Mohsen Hazrati’s “Perception of wine” project, augmented reality experience.

The exploration of new interactive and inclusive digital formats, telepresence and digital collective emotion is present in the IMMENSIVA project: Oxytocina Machina, an artistic multiple installation and VR that will connect unknown people in real time separated by thousands of kilometers, from Barcelona, Milan, Rotterdam and Linz.

Connected with sustainability, “TesserIce” project, latent and urgent reality of poles melting, or how we can appreciate our urban environment in a more human way under the complexity and diversity proposed by “Theater of Inconveniences”.

All the artistic projects: installations, videos and VR of Espronceda will be digitally present in a virtual gallery on the Mozilla Hubs platform accessible by laptop or VR headset and available through Ars Electrónica’s Swapcard.

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

Olea. Digital-bio codifications. Solimán López. 2021

The OLEA project proposes a space for reflection and a rapprochement of species, concepts, economies, societies and information flows that converge in a single fluid. Olive oil. Historically related to deities, abundance, health, softness and liquid gold, olive oil is the perfect place to embrace other natures. Genetic alteration, its artificial construction and coexistence in hybrid spaces, configure a new ecosystem of ethical, religious, political and social thought that, thanks to this project, aims to link molecularly with technopolitical structures, cryptography and decentralised models of thought and economy. OLEA is an oleic fluid in which the properties of this oil coexist with the molecular synthesis of the code that gives life to a cryptocurrency in blockchain environments. This hybridisation of spaces reveals a new place of understanding. A new unexpected future in the revolution of the species.

nota_prensa_OLEA_LAUNCHINGdsa-1024x1024-1_18_11zon

Solimán López (SP) develops his artistic production between his studio in Paris, France (UAS, Updated Art Studio) and ESAT LAB, Innovation department that he runs at ESAT, Escuela Superior de Arte y Tecnología de Valencia, Spain.

His work with the meaning and nature of digital archives, as shown by some pieces such as the Harddiskmuseum, an art museum on a hard disk, Framed Memory Card, Host-in, Langpath or File Genesis or more recent works in which virtual and analog worlds are connected through photogrammetry as in High Meshes.

cryptolea.com

Solimán López

***Perception of wine*. Mohsen Hazrati. 2020.**

Immensiva Residency 2021

Multimedia installation that explores the connection between the digital universe and the physical world, based on the Iran’s cultural past and the perception of wine in Persian literature, approaching it from a scientific and poetic perspective.

Starting from the ancient Iranian innovations on the generation of electricity through wine, more than 2000 years ago, Hazrati tries to shape a new way of perceiving the “nectar of the gods” in the current digital age, using it to produce enough electricity to activate and run a facial recognition device. The result is a project that visualises our humanity through a hybrid Multimedia installation that explores the connection between the digital universe and the physical world, based on the Iran’s cultural past and the perception of wine in Persian literature, approaching it from a scientific and poetic perspective.

Starting from the ancient Iranian innovations on the generation of electricity through wine, more than 2000 years ago, Hazrati tries to shape a new way of perceiving the “nectar of the gods” in the current digital age, using it to produce enough electricity to activate and run a facial recognition device. The result is a project that visualises our humanity through a hybrid piece where electrochemical reaction translates into enhanced reality and digital content.piece where electrochemical reaction translates into enhanced reality and digital content.

Mohsen Hazrati is an artist working with new media and digital research, co-founder of DAHProject. Born and raised in Shiraz, a city famous for its literature, culture, poets and its gardens, which prove to be elements present across his array of work, as well as the mysterious poems of Hafiz and Saadi. Through art and new media, especially virtual and enhanced reality experiences, Hazrati tries to find new ways to interpret and update this mystical world.

mohsenhazrati.com

Mohsen Hazrati

Oxytocina Machina. 2021

Immensiva Residency 2021

It is a common misconception that virtual reality isolates us from one another and the world, so Studio VRij, Zalán Szakács and Immseniva joined forces to prove otherwise.

Oxitocina Machina is an extraordinary shared experience that blurs the lines between reality and VR, exploring a virtual connection between strangers, who are in reality separated by a thousand miles. During the experience people who have never met develop a deep connection and release the love hormone oxytocin by playing, moving and sharing.

How do we want to do this?

Oxytocina Machina is a hybrid VR installation that connects two inflatable cocoons at different locations through virtual reality. One in Barcelona, One in Rotterdam.

The cocoons serve as a safe space, separating the user from reality, becoming a portal to the virtual world. Players take their shoes off as part of a ritual.

They will feel a comfortable material on their feet when entering the cocoon. When entering the virtual reality, slowly participants realize their body is becoming part of digital space. Their hands start fading in and they realize they are not alone.

The experience starts in a playful way, where the participants use the interactions and their bodies to connect. A virtual guide, in the shape of a mysterious particle system, will inspire and lead the participants towards connection. This virtual guide is in reality a real human, playing a live role in the VR experience. On the floor of the cocoon lie stones that will ask the players a question when they touch them. Sharing memories and feelings has been proven to create connection and oxytocin.

Our team The team consists of 5 interdisciplinary artists. The concept of this project started at Studio VRij, in 2021. Together with the amazing sound design skills of Mathieu Preux, the live VR performance of Lucia Redondo, and the brilliant spatial design vision of Zalán Szakács, we have been working on this project in a highly enjoyable and interdisciplinary way.

Studio VRij is an Amsterdam-based immersive content studio. Sammie de Vries and Mila Moleman founded Studio VRij with the belief immersive technologies should bring people together. With the combination of art, science and immersive tech, we aim to create connection and interaction between people. Here you can find a link to the Youtube pitch

studio-vrij.com

Sammie de Vries

Mila Moleman

Zalán Szakács

Mathieu Preux

Theater of Inconveniences

Immensiva Residency 2021

Collectively created virtual reality work, which proposes an immersive experience focused on the observation of the complex space that forms Barcelona, which is identified, narrated and rewritten. The installation, which explores the urban landscape and its everyday scenes in a psychogeography focused environment, examines the influence of the built or geographical environment on our perception in a fully virtual space. With this in mind, the city becomes a stage for encounters, actors, actions, surprise scenes and distorted visions.

The immersive experience consists of three different scenes and soundscapes, made up of constructed fragments and 3D scans of facades, shops, squares, streets, architectures, objects and people, exploring different scales and aspects of Barcelona. Its goal is to reflect on how we can appreciate our urban environment in a more human way based on the value and richness of complexity and diversity.

The work connects Espronceda with another project focused on the enhancement of cultural and social heritage that is showcased at Innsbruck Garden / Bad Ischl.

Anirudhan Iyengar

Helvijs Savickis

Nuño de la Serna Vicente

Julia Obleitner

Mathieu Preux

Dominic Schwab

Tesserice. 2021

Immensiva Residency 2021

Based on the concept of sustainability, this project, emerged in interdisciplinary collaboration, confronts us with the melting of the poles and immerses us in that latent and urgent reality that calls for profound solutions and change. The work depicts an immersive media landscape in hyperspace, representing the space-time of glacial ice from within a four-dimensional structure. According to its authors, it is a hyper-documentary poem that reveals the spatiotemporal effects of climate change on ice lived through an individual experience.

Visualising four-dimensional architecture from the confines of our three-dimensional space is one of greatest challenges for mathematicians and artists. Most possible solutions are visualised through these virtual architectures. The media landscape’s acoustics play an essential role in the sensory environment of the experience, turning the work into a four-dimensional navigable space.

The work connects Espronceda with another project focused on the enhancement of cultural and social heritage that is showcased at Innsbruck Garden / Bad Ischl.Based on the concept of sustainability, this project, emerged in interdisciplinary collaboration, confronts us with the melting of the poles and immerses us in that latent and urgent reality that calls for profound solutions and change. The work depicts an immersive media landscape in hyperspace, representing the space-time of glacial ice from within a four-dimensional structure. According to its authors, it is a hyper-documentary poem that reveals the spatiotemporal effects of climate change on ice lived through an individual experience.

clea-t.de/tesserice

Clea T. Waite

Max Orozco

Jared Christopher Kelley

PRESS – ARS ELECTRONICA GARDEN BARCELONA

IL GIORNALE DELL’ARTE (Italia)

Giardini elettronici (10 Septiembre 2021) de Roberta Bosco

“Ars Electronica, il più importante festival del mondo dedicato alla creatività elettronica e alle sinergie tra arte, tecnologia, scienza e società, mantiene il formato ibrido inaugurato l’anno scorso.”

LA VANGUARDIA

“El festival Ars Electrónica imagina otros mundos posibles (09 Septiembre 2021) de Teresa Sesé

Barcelona se suma por segundo año a la gran cita internacional del arte digital.”

EL PUNT AVUI

Tecnologia humana (09 Septiembre 2021) de Maria Palau

“Barcelona està a l’avantguarda dels canvis que s’exigeixen al món sencer”, va exclamar ahir el tinent d’alcalde de Cultura, Jordi Martí, en la presentació del programa d’Ars Electronica, el festival més important que interconnecta art, tecnologia i societat.

TV3

Ars Electornica Garden Barcelona en Telenotícies TV3 (08 Septiembre 2021) de Òscar Costa Hoyuela Xavier Oller / Enric Miró

EL PAÍS

“El Ars Electronica une oxitocina, aceite de oliva y vino” (08 Septiembre 2021) de Roberta Bosco

Barcelona será sede en 2022 el International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA).

324

L’Ars Electronica Festival aplega a Barcelona l’obra inèdita de 24 artistes inspirats per la idea d’interdependència (08 Septiembre 2021) ACN Barcelona

“Per segon any consecutiu Barcelona és una de les subseus de l’Ars Electronica Festival, la cita més important del món sobre creació electrònica i sinergies entre art, tecnologia, ciència i societat, i que celebra la 42a edició a més de cent ciutats del 8 al 12 de setembre.”

RTVE

Ars Electornica Garden Barcelona en l’Informatiu 2 RTVE (08 Septiembre 2021) de Anna Albertí

EL PERIODICO DE CATALUÑA

El arte vuelve al Canòdrom (08 Septiembre 2021) de Natàlia Farré

“El edificio de Bonet Castellana de la Meridiana tenía que ser centro de arte contemporáneo de Barcelona, pero solo sumó una exposición; ahora vuelve a acoger una muestra de la mano de Ars Electronica, el festival más importante del mundo de creación digital.”

The New Barcelona Post

“Las actividades del Ars Electronica Garden se harán hasta este domingo, 12 de septiembre, en el Canòdrom-Ateneu d’Innovació Digital i Democràtica, que, junto con el Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture y el Institut de Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya organizará exposiciones, charlas y talleres con creadores consolidados y emergentes sobre las tendencias líderes en el arte digital. “

Betevé

“A la nostra ciutat, la festa prendrà la forma de l’Ars Electronica Garden Barcelona, una iniciativa organitzada per l’Institut Ramon Llull, la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) o l’Hangar-Centre de recerca i producció d’arts visuals, entre altres, a més de les dues seus barcelonines que acullen activitats del festival: Espronceda-Institut d’art i cultura”

Diario de Mallorca

“Solimán López (Burgos, 1981) es un media artist afincado en Mallorca que utiliza su arte para reflexionar sobre la relación entre lo analógico y lo digital. Defiende que un artista contemporáneo debe hablar de la tecnología porque es «la gran revolución de nuestro tiempo». Presenta Olea en el Instituto Espronceda, en el marco del Festival Ars Electrónica Garden de Barcelona.”

Arte edad silicio

“El centro de arte Espronceda desplegará cinco instalaciones, tres de las cuales son el resultado de las residencias artísticas IMMENSIVA Residences 2021, que ofrecen experiencias multiusuarios y abordan temas candentes de la creación contemporánea como los NFT, las criptomonedas y la contaminación ecológica de los datos.”

ARS ELECTRONICA GARDEN BARCELONA 2021

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

Olea. Digital-bio codifications. Solimán López. 2021

Perception of wine. Mohsen Hazrati. 2020.

Oxytocina Machina. 2021

Theater of Inconveniences

Tesserice. 2021

PRESS – ARS ELECTRONICA GARDEN BARCELONA

***Perception of wine*. Mohsen Hazrati. 2020.**