By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Combining technology, music, art and design, the Festival Multiplicidade returns this month for its tenth edition. The 2014 season will begin on Saturday, June 21st at Oi Futuro Flamengo with the opening of the multimedia “NÓS” exhibition, the launch of the new Festival Multiplicidade book, and a performance by special guest, artist and electronic musician Scanner.
“It’s a real joy to return to a country that always inspires,” Scanner, who performed during the festival in 2011, told The Rio Times. “Rio brings warmth in both climate and people and I remember this so well from my previous visits to this fine city.”
Born Robin Rimbaud in 1964 in the United Kingdom, Scanner is an electronic music pioneer, who weaves found sounds his musical compositions.
“I’ve been recording since I was a fresh faced teenager and had always incorporated recordings of school friends, family, people shopping at the supermarket, in offices, etc, in my rather experimental recordings, using a little Sony Walkmen,” Scanner explained. “I would make recordings of our [family] holidays rather than take photos,” he added, “I found the sounds offered something so much stronger than just a photo, they would always return me to exactly that very moment in time.”
Presenting performances that merge technology with artistic and musical creations, is something that Festival Multiplicidade’s creator and curator, Batman Zavareze has excelled in during the last ten years. Zavareze explained the origins of Festival Multiplicidade to The Rio Times saying; “The project began, to deal with an artistic anxiety: open a space for images and music together with the technology that loomed at the beginning of the 21st century.
“This subject was in the air and would transform our lives. The idea was to propose a contemporary cultural platform that would regularly educate the public and promote the production of digital content and this has been happening, clearly, with our ten years of existence,” he adds.
In addition to Scanner, the festival has hosted performers including German electronic music pioneer Atom™ and American electronic musician Daedelus. The first night of the 2014 edition will begin at 7PM on June 21st with the opening of the NÓS Exhibition, an experimental work the chronicles the history of the festival.
“The Festival is on the city calendar from June to November, and includes a widely rich repertoire of national and international artists,” said Zavareze. “The number of artists is not limited to the electronic universe, we are building a unique and unusual meeting between image and sound.”
The NÓS Exhibition, which will continue until at Oi Futuro Flamengo until July 20th, features seventeen projectors that will run simultaneously and will be synchronized with software mapping and robotics that will use a web of ropes and knots to display the projections of works developed by a group of artists and collaborators from previous editions of the festival.
Following the opening of the exhibition, Scanner will perform at 8PM in the outdoor area of Oi Futuro Flamengo. In explanation of the origin of his stage name, he said; “It was actually purely by chance I discovered this scanner device, since a friend was part of a hunt saboteur group and would use it to listen in to the local police.”
He continues, “I immediately saw the potential and intrigue of being able to access these private spaces and incorporate them into these exploratory soundscapes I was producing at the time. I was especially drawn to the fact that the recordings were so intimate, so clear, yet abstract in nature.”
Following Scanner’s show, there will be a cocktail party launch of the newest Festival Multiplicidade book, which highlights the 2013 season. Of the festival on its tenth anniversary, Scanner said, “As always, it’s the unexpected that excites. I’ve never been an artist or person who enjoys repetition or conservative approaches and the festival has consistently offered risky, edgy and playful works that engage both the heart and the mind.”
What: Festival Multiplicidade’s 10th Season Opening
When: June 21st, 7PM
Where: Oi Futuro Flamengo, Rua 2 de Dezembro 63, Flamengo, RJ
Entrance: Free