“Sereia Lab: sound installation in sensory scales” was proposed in 2008 and won a public competition for a Grant to execute in 2009 in two big cultural centers in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The project was so innovative at the time that even if I was not a well-known artist, the big television channels went there to check it out, resulting in a significant number of reviews, also on Blogs across the country. But in the following years, I had difficulty finding funding for new exhibitions elsewhere. Then, I suppose the administrators and curatorial teams had issues evaluating the project, regardless of the support letters from renowned museums and professionals of excellent reputation, such as MAMAM (Recife), MAC (Niteroi), Vania Dantas Leite, and Sergi Jorda, among others.
As an artist of diverse skills, I see that people holding the power of judging often feel suspicious when someone appears as an ‘octopus,’ capable of reaching results in different directions.
So, I first take the time here to explain a bit of the history that led me to idealize this project as my first ‘solo’ exhibition, where I invited other artists and professionals to collaborate, as I always do, since my extensive experience as ‘band leader’ in the music field.
“Sereia Lab” resulted from years in the music world as a singer that would not fit the needs of the markets. The challenges I faced provoked my ‘internal genius’ to search for alternate ways of presenting my music through sharing knowledge with emerging technologies—also the idea of creating a space where people could be immersed in the narrative proposed by the songs and its imaginary.
The beauty of this ‘sereia’ (mermaid) drama is the eternal story of being a fish out of the water, that is, someone that has to survive in an environment even ‘not belonging’ there. The reason that I am an artist is that I praise freedom of expression. It is a political decision rather than a need or will to be appreciated. I represent all my cultural heritage: the indigenous, the Africans, the nomads, and all those who don’t conform to authority as a way to abuse others. Women of my family had to carry their destinies and the destiny of the offspring. But also my personal story of a utopian person who always felt something was wrong with the romantic project. The inequality of gender and social-economic challenges make romanticism a luxury that only a few can enjoy. Making art is an alternate way to find who we are and what we are doing here in this world. The ‘sereia lab’ water tank was about finding a place to communicate with the world, even in isolation. During this period, I did other performance artworks where I established frontiers between my body and other bodies while exercising the freedom of being naked or dressed, which is a distinction between the ‘bare life’ and the social life. The life uncovered from the proper rights versus the fully covered life.
Descrição Técnica Project Technical Description):
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Ambiente interativo composto por sensores de presença num sistema conectado ao Arduíno e ao computador, com conteúdos organizados no software Pure Data.
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Projeções de imagens subaquáticas nas paredes, num ambiente preparado com recursos cenotécnicos para amplificar o espelhamento da água.
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Um aquário de sete toneladas ocupou o ambiente, onde ocorreram performances subaquáticas. Nas performances, a comunicação de dentro dágua com o ambiente externo era feita através de leitura de imagem num sistema de código aberto para Realidade Aumentada.
SEREIA LAB é o nome do projeto artístico transdisciplinar e multimedia, realizado no início de 2009, em duas galerias, no Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, através de seleção em Edital público.
A obra, idealizada pela artista Elen Nas, é reflexo de uma trajetória madura no campo das artes, em especial da performance, estudos técnicos e sonoros, realizados, em grande parte, de forma autodidata. Uma formação inicial sólida e participação em pesquisas científicas bem orientadas, colaborou na facilidade com que a artista formula seus projetos, e, mesmo no território de experimentação das novas linguagens, não perca de vista toda busca relacionada a arte como comunicação e estímulo a novos aprendizados, a poética lírica e lúdica que resumem um idealismo projetado ao humano.
A PERFORMANCE, comumente efêmera, resultou em um trabalho contínuo, durante um ano, em duas mostras, com duração de dois meses, e um mês e meio, respectivamente. A artista, presente, fisicamente, e virtualmente, durante este período, e um estudo de INSTALAÇÃO SONORA INTERATIVA, onde o público produzia sons involuntária, e voluntariamente.
Acredito que, um empreendimento inovador de sucesso, se inicia a partir de uma premissa visionária. Embora, inicialmente, apenas sabíamos que a oportunidade dada para a experimentação e crescimento do Sereia Lab, outros e novos paradigmas foram apresentados a público, com este trabalho.
Sereia Lab Sereianestesia Sereia Psinoe Seiren 