From 27 to 30 April, L.E.V. Festival (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual) held its 17th edition in Gijón, bringing together once again in the Asturian city some of the most outstanding experimental projects of audiovisual and digital creation on the contemporary scene.
With the support of Gijón City Council and the Principality of Asturias, L.E.V. Festival presented an extensive programme consisting of audiovisual performances, concerts, installations and virtual reality experiences involving more than thirty national and international artists and seven emblematic venues in the city: Teatro de la Laboral, Teatro Jovellanos, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Muséu del Pueblu d’Asturies, Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto, Escuela de Comercio and the Jardín Botánico Atlántico.
The line-up of live performances this year was headed by the essential German digital artist Robert Henke, who was accompanied by other big names such as Ikonika, Throwing Snow, Hélène Vogelsinger, Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt, Zoë McPherson & Alessandra Leone, Ninos du Brasil, Kai Whiston, Grand River, Enxin/Onyx, WaqWaq Kingdom, Kathy Hinde, Komatssu, James Shinra, Annabelle Playe & Alexandra Rădulescu, Jailed Jamie Ft. Helios Amor or Claraguilar.
Among the highlights of this year’s festival was a session in the Botanical Garden in which the public could enjoy the concerts of Astrid Sonne and Samuel Organ through wireless headphones, in collaboration with Fundación EDP. Another highlight of the programme was the closing show, for which L.E.V. brought back the striking live-media performance Dökk by Italian studio fuse*.
The festival activities were completed with a talk by audiovisual artist Kathy Hinde, two multi-award-winning virtual reality experiences presented in synergy with the project Arenas Movedizas (From the Main Square by Pedro Harres and Goliath: Playing with Reality by Barry Gene Murphy & May Abdalla) and three audiovisual installations (Faces by the digital art studio Iregular, OPTX.drips by the Canadian Maxime Corbeil-Perron and Hardly Working by the collective Total Refusal). This last piece, which turns video game NPCs into the protagonists of the film and observes them with ethnographic precision, remained open until the 24th of June at LABoral Centro de Arte, with free admission.
L.E.V. Festival 2023
April 27 – 30 | Gijón
www.levfestival.com
@levfestival #LEVFestival
An initiative by Datatron
Supported by Gijón’s Town Council and the Principality of Asturias
Promoted by: Fundación EDP
Partners: RIT (Realities In Transition), LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, EMAP (European Media Art Platform), Arenas Movedizas, Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura, Embassy of Canada in Spain, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Madrid, Japan Foundation, Québec Office in Barcelona, Silencio Sonoro, Conseyu de Mocedá de Xixón, Radio 3, OCIMAG, CLOT Magazine, La Salve, Organics by Red Bull.
Graphic design: Pasajero37 / Motion design: Holke79 / Sound design and music: Jorge Haro
