Text by CLOT Magazine
Taking place between the 14th and 17th of November 2018, Modena welcomes the ninth edition of the NODE festival, bringing to Italy a series of interesting and sought-after projects that explore the complex interaction between the visual arts, music, cinema and new technologies. Presenting a series of cross-disciplinary works by selecting the most daring international performers, the programme evokes the nuances of the multi-sensorial cross-over between the electronic and visual arts.
NODE has carefully chosen a series of locations that aim to enhance the conceptual potential of each project, that include the Chiesa di San Bartolomeo, a 17th-century masterpiece of baroque architecture that will host the performance of the Japanese composer and musician Masayoshi Fujita.
Through an extensive programme of events, shows and workshops that include live media performances, audiovisual projects and training, NODE aims to provide a dynamic space in which young people are introduced to new digital arts.
The programme is inaugurated by artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, whose exhibition al-jabr (algebra), displayed at the historical Galleria Civica di Modena, evokes the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi. The next day – at the same location – American duo Visible Cloaks (Spencer Doran, Ryan Carlile) will unveil their last studio album, “Reassemblage”, an enhanced conscious experience that builds on the interaction between synths and stripped-down melodies reminiscent of MIDI aesthetics, accompanied by the post-human visual landscapes of Brenna Murphy.
On Saturday afternoon, in a secret location to be announced later, NODE is privileged to showcase a performance by Tomoko Sauvage, a Paris-based musician and sound artist whose research field explores water’s sonic attributes. Sauvage’s work uses water as its primary medium, presenting a display of waves and bubbles caught by a series of hydrophones that resonate in multiple porcelain bowls – generating random percussions and fragile harmonies that are amplified by a combination of natural and controlled feedback.
Other promising performances include that of Ben Frost and the stunning visuals of Marcel Weber/MFO. The careful research into securing a selection of artists internationally recognised as the greatest exponents of digital sensibility ensures that NODE will be an unmissable event, offering a unique understanding of the complex interaction between art and music.
