Night of the Books 2011
On Wednesday 27 April, 2011, Ivorypress presented the following activities against the backdrop of Madrid’s ‘Night of the Books’.
20:00 h, ‘The future is curved’. El Estado Mental magazine was presented with a public conversation between Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras (professor of Contemporary History at Carlos University III in Madrid), Amador Fernández-Savater (essayist and social critic), Fidel Moreno (Journalist at El Estado Mental) and Borja Casani (Editor and Director of El Estado Mental and other cultural magazines). The talk was moderated by Antonio Sanz (director of Ivorypress).
- 21:30 h, Chiromorphic Interactive Multimedia Audiovisual Performance by NICO BAIXAS. Nico Baixas has conducted the most comprehensive research to date on shapes made with the hands (comprising over a thousand pictures which have been catalogued and organised by families). For this work, Baixas used sculptural concepts which are sometimes in opposition: straight and curved, simple and complex, but always from an abstract point of view. However, when one observes the results, it is inevitable to see shells, corals, insects, bones, futuristic architectural shapes or industrial design. This occurs due to the fact that the proportion of the bones of the hands coincides with the Fibonacci sequence, which is related to the golden ratio, and many of these real objects share the same proportions which are inherent to nature. In the Chiromorphic Interactive Multimedia Audiovisual Performance, Nico interacted with a circuit of cameras and computers which allowed him to display live work, recording, freezing and multiplying the hand shapes. Through these means, he was able to draw with his hands, building complex structures that managed to immerse the viewer in a hypnotic state of changing, very suggestive shapes.
- 22:30 h, Desvariétés Orquestina and Jasmina Jolie concert. Desvariétés Orquestina and Jasmina Jolie gave the public a chance to reconnect with the songs of the early twentieth century. Jasmine rediscovers the music of European and American cabarets, paying homage to divas such as Josephine Baker, Celia Gámez and Marlene Dietrich and singing melodies from leading composers like Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin and a number of distinguished composers who created works here in Madrid, like José Padilla, for instance. The wide repertoire of songs with lyrics in Spanish, French, English and German ranges from the klezmer of German cabaret music to the American music hall through swing, variety songs, fox-trot, charleston, ballads, ragtime, Dixieland and tango. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret artists are Jasmina Jolie (Stuttgart, Germany. Vocals) and Desvariétés Orchestra, whose members that night were Scott A. Singer (California, USA. Accordion) and Andrea Szamek (Pécs, Hungary. Violin, trumpet and classical violin).
The following exhibitions were also on show on the night: Gilbert & George, Urethra Postcard Pictures. Julião Sarmento, Papel.