Image: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid
The eighth edition of L.E.V. Matadero is taking place at Matadero Madrid until Sunday 20 September.
Its programme combines absolute premieres, first presentations in Spain and projects created specifically for the festival.
The British company Neon Dance will give the Spanish premiere of ‘Last and First Men’, a stage adaptation of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s film, with original music composed by Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman.
Concerts, audiovisual performances, stage works, immersive installations and extended-reality experiences make up a programme that uses technology to address memory, resilience in the face of illness, the dialogue between tradition and new technologies, the relationship between the body and the machine, and the reinterpretation of the contemporary landscape.
The Vortex section focuses on extended realities, with projects including ‘A Long Goodbye’ by Kate Voet and Victor Maes, and the premiere of a new work by Spanish artist Carles Castaño.
The audiovisual-installation circuit includes an interactive proposal developed by Vitalic and 1024 Architecture, alongside work by Riccardo Giovinetto.
The festival also hosts ‘XR Camp. Habitar lo virtual: Nuevas formas de pensar las Realidades Extendidas’, an international meeting linked to the European project Realities in Transition (RiT2).
A roundtable titled ‘¿Cómo abordar las tecnologías XR? Accesibilidad, formatos y políticas de distribución’ brings together artists and professionals to address the distribution and access challenges facing XR art, including its presentation to diverse audiences and ways to expand accessibility without giving up artistic experimentation.
