By Ciara Long, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This month, Rio will host the third edition of its Mapping Festival, which returns for the first time since 2015. The biggest light festival in Latin America, Rio Mapping Festival will run until the end of April, and offers a series of music and film events, workshops, performances and other activities throughout the city.
Mixing art with technology, the festival will bring projections, visualizations and multimedia exhibitions to diverse locations across Rio. Daily activities will run from Santo Cristo’s Galpão Nau, which will also open the series of projections that will appear throughout the city from April 17th.
Video mapping, where artists project works onto the front facades of buildings, streets and monuments, is an art form which has gained popularity and praise in recent years as technology evolves, with major cities across the globe hosting similar festivals.
“The festival’s proposal is to value this field of action, legitimizing and promoting the reconfiguration of looks on the urban landscape, taking visual art to unusual spaces. And also to promote an experimental meeting space for artistic creation and exchange,” said Paulinho Sacramento, the festival’s founder.
Adding, “In addition, we want to attract and expand the consumer culture audience in a free and interactive way, integrating visual art, music and architecture in the public space through creativity, experimentation and technology.”
Artists from across the world have collaborated and contributed to the month-long festival, and exhibitions will include the opening of Dutch artist Frouke ten Velden’s work, ‘Vector 2.0’, on April 18th.
Projections will occur from 7PM onwards, and include locations such as Cinelândia’s Câmara dos Vereadores on April 20th, the Real Gabinete Português on April 22nd> and Quintino’s Igreja de São Jorge on the 23rd. The projections will all be accompanied by live music from names such as DJ Sapucaia, Leandro VJ, Paulinho Sacramento e Brizio and VJ Raton.
Rio’s MAM will also receive the festival for an evening, with a special video mapping exhibition along with a performance from singer Larissa Luz. All events are free entry, and the festival’s closing party will be held at Galpão Nau, with the ‘Bailão do Castelo’ party on April 30.
What: Rio Mapping Festival
When: April 1 – 30, times may vary depending on activity
Where: Locations throughout Rio
Entrance: FREE