| A Residency at Vizcaya | ||
VIZCAYA's first CONTEMPORARY ARTS PROJECT: gustavo matamoros
VISITING ARTISTS PROGRAM at VIZCAYA MUSEUM and GARDENS I'm the first of four artists selected to be in-residence at Vizcaya here in Miami. My residency started back in March of 2006 and this is a brief report of what I've been doing. My exploratory visit of the site was actually back in September of 2005. My tour started outside, in the gardens. Many ideas came to mind about possible pieces, sound installations. But it was when we came into the main house, toward the end of the tour, that I learned of the organ at Vizacaya - an instrument that plays music from paper rolls. I knew nothing about organs so, naturally, I proposed an organ project. It was a good excuse to spend time in the mansion doing something productive. And, everyone at Vizcaya loved the idea. After acoustical tests of the courtyard area scheduled in March 2006 and a test recording of a couple of organ rolls, I presented Vizcaya with a formal proposal for an installation that, for two months, would turn the inner courtyard into a giant organ chamber and performance using the organ and the music on the rolls. My original idea was to work with the music recorded in the rolls and edit it somehow into a new roll that would contain a new piece. That became impractical. I decided to then propose to record the organ rolls and work with the recording to edit a new piece based on those sounds for use in the performance. This solution was received with great enthusiasm by the museum because the process would generate documentary recordings of the playable rolls for preservation in the Vizcaya archive. Based on the quality of the recordings, Vizcaya went further and committed to releasing a CD which should be released before the opening of the installation and the performance on November 15, 2006. A RECENT PRESS RELEASE - from Vizcaya Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is launching a series of contemporary art exhibitions designed to reach local and national audiences and to position Vizcaya as a venue for creative exchange. The program engages contemporary artists in developing and presenting projects that reflect their reactions to and interactions with South Florida’s beloved National Historic Landmark. After a preliminary immersion visit to the Museum each artist will create an original work in response to his/her experience, install this project at Vizcaya, and present related public programming, such as performances, demonstrations, and studio labs. Each installation will be exhibited for a period of 2-3 months, enabling Vizcaya to showcase significant artistic talent while also offering visitors new ways of understanding this historic site. Miami-based sound artist Gustavo Matamoros kicks off the exhibition series this fall with his installation, ORGAN. Using sound elements from Vizcaya’s historic pipe organ, Mr. Matamoros will create a 5.1 surround sound installation that matches certain frequencies in Vizcaya’s architecture so that, when visitors hear the sounds, they will also experience the architecture in a new, unexpected way. ORGAN will also include a 50-minute composition for the opening event on November 15, 2006. Installation dates: November 16, 2006 - January 15, 2007. SOME DETAIL ABOUT THE PIECES: ORGAN is the global name a gave my project at Vizcaya and it is comprised of the following elements: - The Installation: ORGANIC PIPES: a sound installation in the Courtyard recording for optional CD: 09/26/06 & 10/02/06 opening: 11/15/06 exhibition through: 01/15/06 - The performance: during the performance, several pieces will happen simultaneously - 11/15/06 DIGITAL ORGANIZER: an open form composition based of music from the Vazcaya rolls. It is likely that this piece can only be performed at Vizcaya given the unique conditions of the site and the instrument. OF THE 87 ORGAN ROLLS: a text composition of phrases and sentences compiled from different sources, each containing the word: organ as it is found and used in the English language. SIGHT ORGAN: a video piece using images by Luis Olazabal that were taken inside the Organ Chamber at Vizcaya.
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