By Nathan M. Walters, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – There is never a shortage of things to do in Rio. But it you like art, this week is a doozy. Today is the public opening of ArtRio, art installations are popping up all over the city, and tonight is the premier performance of the 2012 edition of Multiplicidade.
Multiplicidade, now in its 8th edition, is, as the name might suggest, a festival committed to exploring multimedia art; bringing visual art and experimental multimedia shows to a single stage.
The event’s curator, Batman Zavareze, has nurtured the event into one of the most internationally respected events of its kind. This year Zavareze’s artistic agenda is focused on the relationship between low tech and high tech.
According to the curator, “the concepts of creation, more hybrids are being reviewed, discussed and adapted from a multiplication of new artists with their digital tools, producing and consuming: texts, images and sounds.”
Performances will take place throughout the months of September, October, and November. The premier, tonight at Oi Futuro theatre in Flamengo, opens the 2012 season with the experimental music group Rabotnik, performing songs from the new album, “RABOTNIK # 3,” as well as artists Paul Nenflídio, musicians Pedro Sá and Domenico Lancellotti, the experimental music group Rabotnik and DJ, musician and researcher Mauricio Valladares.
Paul Nenflídio’s works and creations will be exhibited tonight, including an electromagnetic bass and an E virus berimbau (the traditional gourd instrument used in capoeira performances). The latter is a machine that produces automatic and random music-based sound that produces a real virus attacking a cell.
There is probably not a more interesting way to spend a Thursday night. Space for the performance is limited, but DJs will play long into the night.
What: Multiplicidade 2012 – Rabotnik
Where: Oi Futuro Flamengo – Rua Dois de Dezembro, 63
When: 7PM
Tickets: R$20