After only two years of virtual proceedings, the Impossible Festival Multiplicidade 2022 opens its 17th edition on the 16th, with in-person and virtual events, which will take place at the Centro Cultural do Oi Futuro, in Flamengo, south of Rio de Janeiro, until April 3. Entrance is free, with ticket collection at Sympla . platform. On opening day, visiting hours will be divided into three shifts, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
The title of the impossible is given to the festival because in its 16 years of existence the organizers have covered all possible fields of art. “We never imagined that the planet would take a rest [com a pandemia do novo coronavírus]. We will cut an ascending cycle of the festival’s history,” he said. Brazil Agency Creator and event coordinator Batman Zavarez.
Multiplicidade has been built over the years with turbulent, unusual, and intractable concepts. “Through the things that were the subject of the research, we saw that it was the definition of the impossible. And this is the present moment in which we live. Therefore, impossible in the dreamy and utopian sense of the scenario we will leave behind and look forward with more affection, light, more humanity, fun, influence and affection”, Batman Zavarez explained.
The festival will have installations, artistic residencies, debates, video shooting (showing video on irregular objects or surfaces) and performances by local and international artists, and you will follow all health protocols required to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
digital art
The main attraction of this edition of the festival is the French artist Maotik (Mathieu Le Sourd), considered one of the most important names in today’s digital art installations, who will present his interactive work. Flowers, occupies the gallery on the fourth floor of Oi Futuro. “He’s been building this interactive content for years with some discussion purposes, from the meaning of nature, life, and how it goes. The result is very impressive. A touching and beautiful reaction,” Zavarez said.
The interactive work reacts to the movement and gestures of the audience, creating visually stunning images. The installation arrives in Brazil for the first time, after touring several countries around the world, such as France, Switzerland, Italy and Egypt. The co-curator noted that in other editions, prior to the pandemic, the festival brought about 70 to 80 artists to Rio each year.
From the second half of March until its closing on April 3, Festival Multiplicidade 2022 will host the Amplify DAI (Digital Arts Initiative), an initiative of the British Council and Oi Futuro, aimed at cultural exchange, through residencies between artists identified as women . Of different nationalities, in partnership with the Mutek Digital Arts Festival (Canada), Arte Lab (Argentina) and SomersetHouse (UK), and with the Brazilian festivals Novas Frequências and Amazônia Mapping, selected with Multiplicidade.
The project arrives in Brazil for the first time and will include Multiplicidade as one of the partners, to promote artistic residencies between two of the duo selected by the festival: visual artist Heather Lander (UK); sound artist Erica Alves (BR); sound artist Robin Buckley or rkss (UK); and plastic artist VJ Grazzi (BR).
The unpublished audiovisual work resulting from these meetings will be shown virtually and replicated at Oi Futuro, along with a presentation of the results of other Amplify DAI project partnerships. The last minute will see a debate on the role of women in (re)creation of art in a post-pandemic world, with many guests, among the artists, producers, technicians and curators. The event will be sounded by DJ and Producer Marta Supernova.
Scientists
Another virtual reality experience with German artists is planned. The ground floor of the Oi Futuro building will be received sensor knife, an augmented reality and spatial sound experience, developed by artist-scientists at Humboldt University of Berlin. There is a relationship between what our brain reacts to and what we ultimately react to in terms of image and sound. It is a new technology being developed by this university and brings the fusion of scholars into the artistic field, with works in neuroscience and neurolinguistics. Festival creator said.
Also on the ground floor, the Nine Earth project is to be presented in partnership with the British Council, which was developed for the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) to discuss sustainable consumption in different regions of the world.
In a new collaboration with the Danish Cultural Institute, the festival brings an unprecedented audiovisual work Autism, by the Danish musician Rampestol. Rampistol, accompanied by his quartet and visual artist Marius Nielsen, suggests a moment of pause and reflection on the human condition. The artist himself, who has been romantically involved with the festival since 2015, leaving his mark on posts he made to Planetário da Gávea and Parque Lage, had a mental breakdown, forcing him to stay home in 2019. He recovered and was preparing for the album release. after the floodBatman Zavarez said Rampistol has found the world on lockdown due to the pandemic.
The occupation of the cultural center by Festival Multiplicidade 2022 will also extend to the theater of the building, in Flamingo, with a series of antique installations, to recall important moments in the course of the event, such as the vinyl. Noise; the performance blind dateBy Nana Vasconcelos, predicting blackouts in Brazil; Multiplicidade series on Canal Brasil, which has reached more than one million people; 11 books edited during these seventeen years; and performance The device – part oneby Gabriella Merib, held in 2017.
In the Parque Library, in the center of the city, lectures and discussions on the creative economy, the future of festivals and the arts of post-pandemic Brazil will be promoted. “Hopefully we’ll see this epidemic subside a bit,” Zavarese commented.
the first show
The symbolic opening of the 2022 Multiplicidade Festival took place on February 2, Dia de Iemanjá, with Aruanda, a celebration of Afro-Brazilian culture led by parents and saints from Umbanda and Candomblé. The ceremony was accompanied by drums and chants from Casa de Candomble Onixigon, a generation of Casa de Jongo da Sirinha, and guests including Luiz Angelo da Silva, Ogan Bangbala, 102, the oldest songwriter in Brazil.
“It was a spiritual beginning, almost a healing ritual,” Zavarez said. The organizers expected a maximum of 60 people, but when they made the procession from Oi Futuro to the beach, more than a thousand people were waiting to go with them.
According to Zavarez, this justifies why we still have a festival in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, and it’s been going on for so long. For him, public expectations are associated with confidence. “Whenever we show that things are happening, I think there will be very important trading.”
Although there is no Carnival in this period, the co-curator believes that Multiplicidade will be an option for residents and visitors of Rio de Janeiro. He believes that anyone who comes will “see something new, will have an extraordinary experience”.
