Icaro Zorbar: 24th Images Festival. Toronto, Canada
Icaro Zorbar is one of the highlights of the LIVE IMAGES Series of the 24th IMAGES FESTIVAL. This is one of the most popular series at the festival, featuring film, video and audio artists, musicians and other performers live and in person. Zorbar will be showing Poco a Poco (Little by Little) mini-concerts performed with interconnected turntables.
The 2011 Images Festival programming showcases over 120 contemporary media-based artworks. Located in 22 venues across Toronto, the festival presents screenings, live performances, online projects, gallery exhibitions as well as artist talks, gallery tours and parties. Opening Gala on Tuesday, March 31 at 7pm at The Royal and Closing Night Gala on Saturday April 9 at 8:30pm at the Toronto Underground Cinema.
Icaro Zorbar es uno de los destacados de la Serie LIVE IMAGES del 24th IMAGES FESTIVAL. Esta es una de las series más populares del festival, presentando artistas de cine, video y audio, músicos y otros artistas en vivo y en persona. Zorbar estará mostrando Poco a Poco, mini conciertos interpretados con tornamesas interconectados.
La programación del Festival de Imágenes 2011 exhibe más de 120 obras de arte basadas en los medios contemporáneos. Ubicado en más de 22 lugares a lo largo de Toronto, el festival muestra proyecciones, presentaciones en vivo, projectos online, exposiciones en galerías, así como charlas de artistas, toures de galerías y fiestas. La Fiesta de Apertura es el Martes 31 de Marzo a las 7pm en The Royal y la Fiesta de la Noche de Cierre es el Sábado 9 de ABril a las 8:30pm en el Toronto Underground Cinema.
April 8th, 2011 ·
Assisted Installations by Icaro Zorbar
April 8th, 2011 · No Comments · Johnson Ngo’s Blog
(from Wednesday, April 6, 2011)
By: Johnson Ngo
On a jammed packed evening of programming including a curated screening, a live performance, and an open screening, Icaro Zorbar’s Assisted Installations was an interesting departure from the norm– seated screenings of moving images.
During intermission, the eager audience waited patiently in the lobby while Zorbar completed installing three works throughout the Polish Combatants Hall. Artistic Director Pablo de Ocampo stated that he was interested in challenging how audiences come to view; instead of coming into the space and sitting down in front of a screen, the audience came together and participated in an intimate, collective experience.
Golden triangle consisted of four record players, where three encircled a fourth, with their needles positioned on one track. The result was a poetic canon of sound, creating a layered and rich soundscape from the original.
In Swan Lake, Zorbar began by hand cranking one of a dozen music-box mechanisms, and proceeded by removing the pins from the other previously wound mechanisms. A cacophony of confusing sounds and movement occurred, where the machines crept slowly across the table by their moving gears. There was a distinct moment of tension, where one teetered narrowly off the table, stopping just before its fall.
Situated above a tall threshold, Nobody, a tape cassette player, played itself out (quite literally). Throughout the song, the magnetic tape of the cassette slowly descended from the player and continued to unwind itself on to the ground. Tracing, unravelling, and coiling. Nobody sings, “nadie me ama, nadie me quiere, lloro en silencio mi desventura… [no body loves me, no body wants me, I silently cry my misfortune]” in this sad elegy of movement and entropy.
This ‘concert’ of Assisted Installations was understated, simple, and clever. Definitely the highlight of the evening! //
Be sure to check out Icaro’s second performance tonight immediately after Live Images 5: Allison Campbell and Paul Clipson at the Music Gallery at 10:30pm!
To give you a better sense of Icaro’s Assisted Installations, here are some documentation videos from his website:
Golden Triangle (2006)
Swan Lake (2006)
Nobody (2005)
For more information,
http://www.imagesfestival.com/calendar.php?event_id=671&month=y
http://icarozorbar.wordpress.com/
Icaro Zorbar is a Colombian artist who works with machines and songs, using cassette tapes, fans, and music boxes, often with his presence mingling among machines and sound takes in the form of “assisted installations.” Icaro holds an MFA from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has shown at Buenos Aires’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Galería Vermelho in Sao Paulo, New York’s Younger Than Jesus exhibition at the New Museum of N.Y, and the Beijing Biennale. His work is in the collection of the Cisneros Fontanals Arts Foundation, which awarded him a Grant Award in 2008. Zorbar currently lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia.