ZARAGOZA.- The Etopia Residence Zaragoza Art and Technology Center (Espaa) closes the year becoming the main European destination for experimental and avant-garde artists with projects in development. This unique space in Spain says goodbye to its 2023 residency program after hosting more than 140 artists and researchers, putting an end to its Sound Laboratory with the arrival of the renowned Brazilian DJ Slim Soledad and the French-Algerian composer Ssia Ghendirm. .
These musicians were the first beneficiaries of the new Fuego program, the latest artistic residency launched by Etopia that was added to its other active programs and which have led to the creation of 55 artistic and scientific projects in the last year alone.
The stay of this program seeks to experiment with the transformative power of sound by maintaining dialogues with the past, present and future, an approach with which both composers have worked to shape their first albums, as well as to teach workshops aimed at others. creators.
In addition, the residency period of these artists concludes with an exclusive concert at the center’s facilities, which previews some of the new compositions and sound experiences developed by Slim Soledad and ssia ghendirm.
Experimentation and study to expand musical horizons
Slim Soledad, a Brazilian artist living in Paris, developed her scholarship in the Fuego program after standing out in the European electronic music scene thanks to her performances, which mix the rhythms of her Brazilian and African-American origins with the European underground, vogue and contemporary dance.
His time in Etopia focused on the search for new horizons, creating his first studio album based on his project Moving in the Mess, that explores unexpected sounds to break with the conventional norms of electronic music.
New calls in Spain
For her part, the French-Algerian composer Assia Ghendir continued her research work in Ethiopia by exploring the parallels between geological movements and somatic movements, through ancestral vocalizations and ritual practices.
This study, which has already produced some songs, evolves towards the composition of his first album through the project A Metasomatic Study.
The work of both artists within the framework of the Fuego program marks the end of a cycle that will once again give way to a new list of authors and researchers in 2024, thanks to the new calls from Etopia and the opening of applications for the autonomous use of their spaces and equipment. An initiative that turns Zaragoza into one of the few places in Europa where new international talents in the fields of avant-garde and scientific research can find support to develop transgressive projects.
FUENTE: Europa Press
