Les Arts and IVAM merge lyricism and visual arts in the audiovisual production ‘Artifacts Assembly’

'Les Arts a l'IVAM'

• Pau Berga directs this dialogue between eleven musical pieces performed by artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament and a selection of works from the IVAM.
• The production will be available for viewing from February 2nd on OperaVision , Opera Europa's content platform.

Valencia (28.01.24). The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía and the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) merge lyricism and visual arts in their first joint production, the audiovisual 'Artifacts Assembly', within the framework of the collaboration between both entities that they have developed in recent years.

The Valencian filmmaker and creator Pau Berga directs this 55-minute film, which unfolds from a dialogue between eleven musical pieces performed by singers and pianists from the Centre de Perfeccionament de Les Arts and a selection of works from the exhibitions and the IVAM collection.

The film will be a pioneering offering within the content range of OperaVision , the digital platform coordinated by Opera Europa, which allows free access to the most outstanding shows from European opera houses.

According to the artistic director of Les Arts, Jesús Iglesias Noriega, from February 2nd and for six months, the public will be able to enjoy a unique initiative that, thanks to the synergy between two of the most important institutions in the Valencian Community, will highlight not only the Valencian cultural potential but also its capacity to innovate and surprise in the artistic field.

In this regard, Iglesias Noriega highlighted the presence in the musical section of some of the most outstanding composers of the Valencian Community, such as Manuel Palau, Matilde Salvador or Carles Santos, alongside great names of the 20th and 21st centuries, performed by the singers and pianists of the Centre de Perfeccionament del Palau de les Arts.

“The pioneering 'Opera Studio' in Spain remains today the only program of its kind in a Spanish theater, attracting young talents from all over the world to Valencia every year,” recalled the artistic director of Les Arts.

The director of IVAM, Nuria Enguita, emphasized the importance of establishing collaborations with other institutions, such as Les Arts, in order to offer shared projects and reach new audiences. “This audiovisual production showcases works by artists such as Teresa Lanceta, Tàpies, Saura, Martha Rosler, and Equipo Crónica in different contexts, providing new interpretations of the IVAM collection,” she explained.

'Artifacts Assembly' is part of the collaboration that the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía and the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern have maintained since 2015. Among its most notable actions, the agreement includes the exchange of artistic expressions, allowing Les Arts to serve as an exhibition space and house important pieces from the IVAM's sculpture collection, as well as enabling the modern and contemporary art museum to host vocal recitals by the Centre de Perfeccionament with programs inspired by its various exhibitions.

'Artifacts Assembly' 

“This analogy between modern and contemporary art and musical works leads to a reflection on the montage, whether scenic, expository or cinematic, as a threshold to imagine confluences between different disciplines,” notes Pau Berga, director of the audiovisual production.

The correspondences between performers and works guide us through the forms of Julio González, the sensitivity of Matilde Salvador or Leonard Bernstein, the gaze of Cindy Sherman, the gravity of Samuel Barber, the performativity of Miguel Benlloch and Carles Santos, the displacements of Martha Rosler and Equipo Crónica, or the rhythms of Teresa Lanceta, among many others.

Through this assemblage of narrative artifacts, we delve into the inner workings of the museum and the theater as a grand, choreographed mechanism. What is usually visible is concealed, and in the movement, the work of visitors, conservators, stagehands, teachers, and sound technicians comes to light. During the journey, the white square becomes a stage, and the score a matter for the operators.