Sonami & Mazzotta | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Sonami & Mazzotta

Laetitia Sonami 

http://www.sonami.net/

Composer, performer, and sound installation artist Laetitia Sonami was born in France and settled in the United States in 1975 to pursue her interest in the emerging field of electronic music. She studied with Eliane Radigue, Joel Chadabe, Robert Ashley and David Behrman. Sonami’s work combines text, music and "found sound" from the world, in compositions which have been described as "performance novels. Her signature instrument, the Lady's Glove, is fitted with a vast array of sensors which track the slightest motion of her enigmatic dance: with it Sonami can create performances where her movements can shape the music and in some instances visual environments. The lady’s glove has become a fine instrument which challenges notions of technology and virtuosity. Sonami’s sound installations combine audio and kinetic elements embedded in ubiquitous objects such as light bulbs, rubber gloves, bags and more recently toilet plungers. She collects electrical wire and embroids them in walls. Sonami gives extensive workshops and classes. She tries to familiarize and enthuse students to adapting old technologies and new media to the creative process and thus expand their field of imagination and play. Sonami has been performing in numerous festivals across the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and China, among which the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, the Bourges Music Festival in France, the Sonambiente Festival in Berlin, the Interlink festival in Japan, Bang-on-a Can, The Kitchen and Other Minds, S.F. Awards include the Alpert Award in the Arts (2002), Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award (2000), the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (2000), Studio Pass-Harvestworks residency (2001) and a Creative Work Fund award (2000) for a collaboration with Nick Bertoni and the Tinkers Workshop. Sonami lives in Oakland, California and is guest lecturer at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Milton Avery MFA program at Bard College. 

“.. Sonami sometimes looked like a human antenna searching the air for sounds, or like a deity summoning earth-shaking rumbles with a brusque gesture.” - New York Times

“...sultry and magical” -Village Voice

Matthew Mazzotta 

 http://matthewmazzotta.com

Matthew Mazzotta got his B.A. from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and his M.A. in Visual Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009). Mazzotta’s main areas of interest are architecture of social spaces – he wants to open a space of critical thought in the places we live, his work stems from the interest for the research of relationships between people and their environment and themselves. Artistic practice that he engages in is conceptual and it manifests as a participative public intervention that aims at critical thought and at opening up space that we inhabit. This sort of socially engaged artistic practice provokes dialogue concerning topics of ecology, public participation and community engagement, artistic esthetics, science, etc.

Rijeka Artist Placement Programme

05.04.-31.05.2011.

In 2009. The Musagetes Foundation has decided to redefine and expand the programme of the Cafe by translating all conversations and debates that happened during the sessions in concrete action. According to their current view - that is the only way that actual change could occur. Thus, a logical continuation of the Rijeka Cafe was The Rijeka Artist Placement Programme. This Programme enabled them to bring two artists in Rijeka - Laetitia Sonami and Matthew Mazzotta on a two months long residency (April 1st - May 31st, 2011.). During their stay in Rijeka these two artist worked on their separate projects.

Laetitia Sonami: Installations Sound gate and Invisible Sea 

Starting with the question what is the sound identity of the place and is it possible to define certain place – in this particular case the city of Rijeka – be defined by its sounds, Laetitia Sonami created a sound portrait of Rijeka. Sonami’s sound portrait took a form of an installation called Sound gate that was installed on the first two cranes on the waterbreak – where people could have heard interviews with the citizens of Rijeka, their thoughts about the walking path that the City opened after many decades. On the second location – on the end of the waterbreak border wall Sonami wanted to, with the installation The Invisible Sea, bring the sounds of the sea that is actual hidden from the walkers on the pier by a concrete border wall. The pipes, installed on the wall for that specific purpose transfer the sound of the sea that eventually merges with the sounds of the city (port, traffic, people, seagulls). Both installations were available to the public in the period from the end of May till the end of June 2011. 

Matthew Mazzotta: Pier Shear

Pier Shear is a community-based project and framework that provides the raw materials and context for transforming the recently opened, unscripted public space of the pier through creative vision, enabling fresh perspectives of the city and a catalyst for change. The introduction of 6 sheep to the pier is the first step in (re)imagining the pier. However, a deeper transformation happens when local artist and builders physically transform the wool from these sheep into new works of art and install them on the pier. In the month of May 2012, the pier will slowly gain 10 new wool artworks including new sculptures, installations, situations, and performances. These artworks are aimed at revealing interesting aspects of Rijekas past, visions of what the future could be (dreams), and stories of transformation. Exploring the idea of the pier in downtown Rijeka as site of transformation and growth, Pier Shear is not a work that provides answers, but a platform and a process that reveals imagination. By directly involving local artists and craftsman in creating artworks of wool aimed at transforming the experience of the pier, Pier Shear draws upon the city’s long history of creative strengths, exposing some of the personal, unspoken, unseen, uncountable, latent, and unrealized aspects of the city while using the pier as the location for this experience. Pier Shear is the creation of a new story for the city, one that connects its livelihood, unique urban locations, natural elements, and strong sense of cultural and style, showing that just under the surface Rijeka is a city with deep currents of possibility.

Musagetes Foundation

→ www.musagetes.ca

Musagetes Foundation and the City of Rijeka started their co-operation in 2009, when an international gathering of artists, cultural operators and intellectuals was organised in order to discuss relevant social and cultural issues within the programme "Rijeka Café". The foundation decided to redefine and widen the "Café" programme, by translating it into Rijeka Artist Placement Programme and bringing to Rijeka two artists, Laetitia Sonami and Matthew Mazzotta for two months. The two artists, during their two-month stay in Rijeka worked on their respective, individual projects. The projects are conceptual and manifested as participating public interventions aimed at critical considerations and opening up the surroundings in which we live. These types of socially engaged artistic practices intend to provoke dialogue about the subjects such as ecology, public participation, art aesthetics and science.