SoniArt presents a concert of newly created music. Guest composer Natalia G. Iglesias.
SoniArt 2025 is presented with the intention of continuing to consolidate a cycle of concerts among audiences who appreciate and are attracted to contemporary art. There are various challenges that contemporary art must face, one of the most recurring being the lack of understanding with which the public justifies the disinterest with which they observe current artistic manifestations. Undoubtedly, when a composer speaks about their work, showing their creative processes as well as their motivations and expressive needs, greater connection with the audience is achieved and the path toward acceptance of the work is cleared. Our personal reality pushes us toward different sensations according to our vital moment. But understanding the artist's thinking and their creative processes allow us to obtain a real approach to the creation of works, to the aesthetic fact, and to the artist's motivations.
The MACA presents the largest Kara Walker exhibition held to date in Spain. The exhibition, which can be visited until September 7, is curated by Rosa Castells, and offers a journey through her trajectory over the last four decades. Kara Walker is one of the most prominent artists of her generation and one of the most interesting figures in the international art scene, with a complex body of work that analyzes, in sometimes chaotic scenes, issues of race, identity, power and desire used always as systems of oppression and subjugation, across centuries and continents.The exhibition brings together the numerous works by Kara Walker present in the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero collection at the MACA. It consists of 44 pieces that cover part of her trajectory and constitute one of the most complete sets of the artist's work existing in European institutions. Here are displayed drawings, prints, sculptures, artist books and one of her most recent videos, a total of 31 works donated in ownership to the MACA in 2021 and 13 pieces deposited in 2024 for this exhibition that have traveled from New York. Her work addresses themes of violence, identity, race and sexuality in the context of the still-present psychological wound caused by the tragic legacy of slavery, presenting a critical vision of the historical past and examining racial and gender stereotypes in our current society.Known for her work of paper-cut silhouettes, inspired by the historical tradition of Victorian shadow portraits, shadow theater or magic lanterns, Walker uses, in works of great formal beauty, the language of satire and archetypes to reveal the contradictions of the concept a nation has of itself, while casting a very lucid subversive gaze on the historical-artistic allusions that influence her works.Through drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video and installation, the artist explores the representation of the notion of race in modern and contemporary art, as well as the need to establish new narratives that challenge the way we look at and understand history. The images in Walker's work, drawn from both historical realism and the fantastical space of the imagined, seduce through their emotional rawness, the intellectual force they contain and their extraordinary visual beauty.
This project was born with the aim of establishing a connection between contemporary composers dedicated to creating avant-garde art and the public interested in it. Contemporary art faces various challenges—undoubtedly numerous ones—with one of the most recurring being the lack of "understanding" with which the potential audience for contemporary art justifies their disinterest in artistic manifestations.Contemporary music is not exempt from all these conditions and, at the same time, it is not immune to possible solutions that help normalize current repertoire in the demands of music lovers and integrate it into the cultural programming of cities and concert halls.Undoubtedly, when a creator speaks about their work with the passion of the creative act and delves not only into their creative processes but also into their motivations and expressive needs, a greater connection with the public is achieved and the path toward acceptance of the work is cleared. It is the project of four saxophonists passionate about their instrument and contemporary music. The members of LUMINA Ensemble combine their efforts for the respectful and committed achievement of high-level musical performances. Lumina refers to the light that continuously permeates our land and shapes us as human beings. Light as a means of union between people who converge in a common project and as a metaphor for our way of understanding musical performance, with proposals through contemporary music.The ensemble's main objective is the dissemination of repertoire composed from the 21st century onwards. Essential to achieving this goal is collaboration with composers and the premiere of works written for this group, proposing the saxophone quartet as a unique instrument full of timbral and expressive resources at the service of new creation.Lumina's infinite curiosity about performative action has led them to perform in various concert halls, festivals and concert series both in Spain and in other countries in our region such as the ENSEMS festival (Valencia), the Contemporary Festival of Alicante (ADDA), Kuraia Festival (Bilbao), Contemporary Music Festival (Córdoba), Mostra Sonora (Sueca), International Organ Festival – FIOB (Benidorm), Concerts d´Advent (Alcoi) or their recent participation in the Organistic Festival of Salento (Lecce – Italy), Festival Due Mare (Gallipoli – Italy). They have a first recording titled Terra Lucis, and have participated in Mexican composer Samuel Cedillo's album for the Kairós record label.Lumina Ensemble is the dedicatee of numerous pieces by renowned authors such as Jesús Torres, Zulema de la Cruz, Eneko Vadillo, Sonia Megías, Oliva Carrión-Arteta, José del Valle, Iluminada Pérez, Ximo Cano, David Leal, Sara Blanco, José Vicente Fuentes Castilla, Diana P. Custodio, M. Eugenia Luc or Voro García.Lumina Ensemble is composed of: Pablo de la Fuente (soprano saxophone), Javier Carrillos (alto saxophone), Pablo Pardo (tenor saxophone) and José Antonio Suay (baritone saxophone).
