Meet TONO Festival: Time-based performance, video, music and dance

Sam Ozer is simply a writer, curator and producer, who is the caput down the TONO Festival. Based successful Mexico, this connection showcases experimental modern creation that is “time-based.” Despite being lone 29 years old, her acquisition arsenic a curator and programmer astatine the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 successful New York led her to make this event. Initially, she founded TONO, an arts enactment based successful New York that explores clip arsenic a important adaptable successful art. Then, organically, the festival emerged successful Mexico aft she visited the state and its creation week.

Ozer explains that clip is simply a connection for the creator erstwhile it comes to practices specified arsenic video art, show and dance. “With a coating oregon sculpture, you could walk 10 seconds oregon 5 hours watching. In the lawsuit of a show oregon video, the creator tells the assemblage however agelong they should prosecute with it; this is portion of the message, adjacent if the spectator leaves earlier it ends. TONO explores clip arsenic portion of the artwork successful experimental forms,” she explains.

TONO Festival successful Mexico City and Puebla is decidedly 1 of the coolest things to bash successful March. (TONO Festival)

This March marks the 4th variation of the festival, which volition beryllium held astatine immoderate of the astir important museums successful Mexico City, including Casa del Lago UNAM, Museo Jumex, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, La Laguna Bodega and Casa de la Acequia. The festival volition besides instrumentality spot astatine the Museo Amparo successful Puebla. “Video installation, performance, euphony and creation — this benignant of experimental signifier is what you volition find during these 2 weeks of art,” Ozer shares.

What’s happening astatine TONO this year

According to Ozer, TONO showcases a divers scope of artists from astir the globe. “We ever contiguous artists from Mexico City oregon Mexico, but besides from galore different countries who person ne'er exhibited successful Mexico oregon Latin America. This year, the festival began with Tino Sehgal, a renowned British creator who creates what helium calls constructive situations. He takes the assemblage oregon depository abstraction and fills it with movement. His enactment isn’t astir objects; it’s astir movement,” she explains.

Additionally, Space Afrika, an physics euphony duo and innovators who fuse U.K. dance, ambient, alternative, trip-hop, pop, modern classical and experimental genres, performed astatine Casa del Lago connected March 12. Kianí del Valle, a Puerto Rican creator and choreographer who precocious choreographed Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, volition besides enactment successful the festival.

“Alexa West, a New York City-based creation artist, volition execute an astonishing creation portion with her company. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, the archetypal Mexican creator invited to the Venice Biennale successful 2007, who creates participatory works with technologies specified arsenic robotic lights, integer fountains, and telematic networks, volition contiguous alongside percussionist Eli Keszler. We volition besides bask Kelman Duran, a producer, composer and DJ. The programme includes Franziska Aigner, who blends performance, doctrine and music; Alessandro Sciarroni and his singular dance, and the prestigious British creator Melanie Smith, who volition contiguous an accumulation astatine Museo Jumex.”

The beingness of Thailand 

The TONO Festival besides arrives successful Puebla astatine the Museo Amparo, wherever a enactment of works by Thai filmmakers and video artists is connected display. These proposals were curated by Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, the Bangkok Kunsthalle’s curator of moving images. Each year, the festival features an planetary guest, and successful this edition, Thailand is represented by creators specified arsenic Montika Kham-on, an creator and filmmaker who explores corporate fear, speculative futures, and ascendant narratives done video, performance, installation and sculpture.

The enactment of Oat Montien, 1 of Thailand’s astir salient queer artists, volition besides beryllium featured. He uses eroticism arsenic a poetic allegory for the analyzable experiences of marginalized identities. Other filmmakers and artists, specified arsenic Tulapop Saenjaroen, who works with moving images, performance, and sound, volition contiguous immoderate of their pieces. Additionally, Ho Tzu Nyen, an creator from Singapore who reflects connected the histories, mythologies, and governmental impulses of Southeast Asia, volition beryllium present.

The 4th variation of TONO volition instrumentality spot astatine the Museo Amparo successful Puebla, and astatine least 8 museums successful Mexico City. (TONO Festival)

Undoubtedly, TONO is an unfastened model to the avant-garde country astatine the intersection of multimedia, performance, creation and music. It offers entree to contemplation and modern reflections done the eyes of artists from each the world.

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Ana Paula de la Torre is a Mexican writer and collaborator for assorted outlets, including Milenio, Animal Político, Vice, Newsweek en Español, Televisa and Mexico News Daily.