Dates
16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 August, 2023
3pm – 7pm (5 sessions per day of 40 minutes each)
Address
Calle Francia 779
Miraflores
Record release and artist talk
Tuesday 15 August, 2023
7pm
Release of the 12” Still vinyl record (co-release with Futura Resistenza, NL)
Screening of the related video produced by Ximena Valdivia
And conversation between the artist and the philosopher Katia Hanza.
Address
proyectoamil
Centro Comercial Camino Real
Av. Camino Real 348, San Isidro
proyectoamil
Lima
proyectoamil is pleased to present Still, a site-specific sound and light installation developed by artist Efraín Rozas. This will be an off-site installation, taking place in a photographic studio in Miraflores specially chosen for this project.
Still is a minimalist sound and light piece that uses the resonance and darkness of the room that hosts it as its main elements. The piece emphasizes the change of our perception, while a sculpture is generated through time, the empty space of the building, and the absence/presence of light.
The piece confronts the public with an ontology of the unquantifiable through the union of space and time and the reintegration of the senses.
Western culture places great emphasis on the linear conception of time, despite the multiple ways of experiencing reality. This preference, which can be traced back to the metaphysics of Greek philosophy, is related to the ease of quantifying time.
How can we reintegrate the senses, time and space when dealing with the non-quantifiable? This separation originates in the logic of quantification. Starting with a fundamental component of music: silence. Silence marks the beginning of a piece of music. Even when we are waiting for the beginning of a piece, we perform an action, we anticipate sound. The concept of silence in Western culture establishes a “zero” point that conditions us for a specific experience. Within this “zero” of silence, there is a pre-definition of a “one”: that “one” represents a sound. In the case of a dance piece, that “one” would be a movement. There is a “zero” point for the sense of hearing and another for vision in the visual arts. Therefore, that “zero” point implies an action: a division of the senses. When we are immersed in Western silence, we are not simply still: we are doing something. We exist in a body that divides experience into five senses. It is important to distinguish between being still and being silent. Stillness precedes silence. Stillness represents a kinesthetic state prior to the division of the senses. In that state of stillness, time and space merge in the contemplation of existence.
About the artist
Efraín Rozas, based in Lima and New York, is a Peruvian interdisciplinary artist working with Latin American music, robotics, sculpture and installation. He holds a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from New York University. Rozas received the Jerome Hill Fellowship in interdisciplinary arts 2023-25. In 2021 he was a resident at The Kitchen (NY). He received the Media Arts Assistance Fund/Wavefarm from the New York State Council, the Jerome Foundation/Harvestworks New Works Commission, and the Knockdown Center (NY) residency for time-based art. He is a former professor in the music department at NYU and currently at Parsons School of Design.
Efraín has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Levitation Festival, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima and Central Park Summerstage Fania Records 50th Anniversary. His album Roza Cruz with his Latin American experimental project La Mecánica Popular was named one of the best Latin American albums of the decade by Zona Sucia and Estereofonía.
He published the book “Fusión: una banda sonora para el Perú”, and released albums through Names You Can Trust (NYC), Futura Resistenza (Amsterdam) and Buh Records (Lima). He produces the radio program “La Vuelta al día en 80 mundos” and directs Tangible: Sound Research Lab (Lima).
Calle Francia 779
Miraflores
