Dualities in Equalities: Art, Technology, Society in Latin America
CIFO x Ars Electronica / Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
The collaboration between the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) and Ars Electronica has resulted in the prestigious CIFO x Ars Electronica Awards, established in 2022. These highly regarded awards celebrate and support emerging and mid-career Latin American artists exploring technology in new media and digital art. Three recipients are granted up to $30,000, empowering them to bring their groundbreaking projects to life.
In 2023, the second edition of the awards presents the exhibition “Dualities in Equalities: Art, Technology, Society in Latin America”, in the frame of the Ars Electronica Festival, featuring a total of nine artistic perspectives from the region and cultural context of Latin America. The exhibition invites the six winners of the CIFO Awards to showcase their works alongside the three recipients of the CIFO x Ars Electronica Awards. The result is a compelling blend of artistic expressions, united by shared themes while distinct in their individual expression and use of tools.
The exhibition delves into the circumstances under which artists create their art and investigates the profound impact of global transformation and innovative digital technologies on their work. These themes hold widespread relevance and are actively embraced and explored by traditional art disciplines.
Representing a vibrant, critical and diverse art scene, the exhibition emerges from a shared cultural foundation. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the concept of Latin American culture through various artistic lenses, rejecting a singular viewpoint in favor of a richer and more nuanced understanding.
Nine different artistic positions have been selected, showcasing the works of individuals from various generations, dialects, life situations and artistic genres. Together, they provide a fascinating and comprehensive insight into the mission of the collaboration between CIFO and Ars Electronica.
“Dualities in Equalities: Art, Technology, Society in Latin America” invites you to delve into the complex interplay of artistic perspectives, where diverse voices converge to illuminate the rich tapestry of the Latin American art scene.
Tales from the Mountaintop
Adrian Melis (CU/ES)
Tales from the Mountaintop is a three-channel sound performative audiovisual work in collaboration with people who live in extreme poverty and sociopolitical disenchantment in different parts of the island of Cuba, mostly in the vicinity of the mountains of the Sierra Maestra: a place located in the east of Cuba loaded with a historical connotation in the 1950s for being the battlefield and conquest of the Cuban Revolution.
From the confines of their homes, inhabitants of these regions were invited to reproduce the soundscape of what was once a glorious journey through the mountains made by Castro’s guerrillas. By using Foley Art (a technique used in cinema to reproduce sounds absent from our environment) each person was invited to create specific sounds from the objects and materials found in the rubble and garbage dumps where they live. The sequences of sounds responded to key moments of such heroic battle. A glorious battle that can only emerge from the garbage and ruins of the present times.
Ars Electronica festival, Lentos Museum, Linz, Austria
in coolaboration with CIFO Foundation (CIFO Awards, 2022)
Sept 6th-10th
Video Installation (premiere): Tales from the Mountaintop (2023)
