PEDER BJURMAN. Slow Walker_SE

The Augmented City section of L.E.V. Matadero will offer this year an augmented reality experience that explores the new narratives that are emerging in this field of artistic creation. After its showing at the last edition of L.E.V. Festival in Gijón, Plaza Matadero will now host the piece Slow Walker, created by the Swedish artist, director and writer Peder Bjurman. In it, a microscopic tardigrade appears as a gigantic being, visible through the screen of your mobile device, taking over the public space of the center for contemporary creation.

Tardigrades are living organisms capable of resisting extreme temperatures of cold and heat. They survive in space and can remain frozen for thirty years, resist vacuum and even radiation. However, they are very sensitive to climate change and are threatened by rising temperatures in their natural habitats, wetlands and mosses. They are resilient fighters in a microscopic format.

This fascinating, monumental and, at the same time, ephemeral creature is shown in this experience as a mystical and symbolic being that floats between life and death, as a colossal geo-located AR sculpture that slowly moves through the city, grazing and interacting with the public as it approaches. All this, accompanied by a soundtrack created by Abul Mogard and a voice-over narration, immerses us fully in the experience.