L.E.V. Matadero comes back with the best visual electronic, immersive experiences and to travel to a new virtual environment

The second incarnation of the Festival will take place September 24-27

L.E.V. Matadero comes back with the best visual electronic, immersive experiences and to travel to a new virtual environment

For the second year in a row, Matadero Madrid organizes L.E.V. Matadero Festival of Visual Electronica and Immersive Experiences, a key event in Madrid with the most avant-garde, experimental side of audiovisual creations, electronic music and art created with digital tools.
The Festival is a showcase of unique experiences of virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive fictions and new digital environments, many of them of recent creation.
The Festival goes beyond the Matadero facilities to land in other public spaces from Madrid, and now it also has its own virtual planet: a new online environment of programming and creation
The Festival will host artists such as Laurie Anderson, Hsin-Chien Huang and Claudia Maté. We will also premiere the first virtual reality project by film director Darren Aronofski with Eliza McNitt, plus works related to big names from the international sound creation scene, such as Biosphere, Sigur Ros, and Matthew Herbert.

Matadero Madrid, the contemporary creation center belonging to the Government Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports, and managed by Madrid Destino, presents this new L.E.V. Matadero Festival. The Festival of Visual Electronica and Immersive Experiences, produced by Matadero Madrid and Cineteca Madrid and directed by Datatrón platform, will take place between September 24 and 27, 2020.

In 2019 a new festival was born in Madrid. After a long history in Gijón, L.E.V. broadened the scope to reach the capital city thanks to Matadero, in order to showcase an extensive lineup which explores the forefront of contemporary digital creativity. In 2020, L.E.V. Matadero retains its full ambition and experimental vision, adapted to these current times and following the new health and hygiene rules. During four days, the Festival will combine on-site activities and new shows specifically created for a digital environment to showcase new experiences in the fields of audiovisual creation, electronica and art created with digital tools.

With this effort, Matadero strengthens its support to national creations and its international focus by showing in Madrid the art of Laurie Anderson, Hsin-Chien Huang, and Claudia Maté; the very first virtual reality project by film director Darren Aronofski with Eliza McNitt, plus works related to big names from the international sound creation scene, such as Biosphere, Sigur Ros, and Matthew Herbert.

The city, Internet and the Cultural Centre, headquarters of L.E.V. Matadero Festival

Now that on-site activities are subject to necessary limitations, Matadero Madrid creates new spaces to host cultural activities. Therefore, L.E.V. Matadero Festival’s lineup will be divided into three sections which will be held in physical, virtual and hybrid spaces.

The Vortex section will show virtual reality and VR Cinema onsite experiences in different spaces of Matadero Madrid and Cineteca Madrid. The section Ciudad aumentada (Augmented City) compiles a series of urban experiences of augmented reality for all ages, at different points of the city of Madrid, beyond the walls of Matadero. Last but not least, Planet LEV is a recently created virtual Internet environment which will showcase several avant-garde musical and artistic experiences.

This way, L.E.V. Matadero tries to redefine creative processes, the artistic experience and interactions with the audience in our new global context, with a festival full of surprises that is constantly evolving and growing in the city of Madrid, and suggests a creative use of the technological tools we all use.

Vortex. Virtual Reality and VR Cinema experiences

The Vortex (VRTX) section, focused on immersive experiences, will keep on exploring the narrative and artistic possibilities of new digital environments. Shows will take place on-site and follow the new health and hygiene rules at different spaces of Matadero, with Nave 0 as main stage but also using Nave 16, the Workshop, the Plató hall and the Cineteca Madrid Archive.

Vortex shows will approach sound experimentation in the digital field using the main concept of travelling. That is the case of ‘To The Moon’, a work by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing. In this show a new Moon is created using references from Greek mythology, literature, science and science-fiction films. ‘Spheres’, directed by Eliza McNitt, is the first VR venture by film director and screenwriter Darren Aronofski (‘Requiem for a dream’, ‘Black Swan’). An invitation to listen to the sound of gravitational waves plus the voices of rock legend Patti Smith and actress Millie Bobby Brown (‘Eleven’ from the ‘Stranger Things’ series).

This section will also feature works related to big names of international sound creation. The project ‘Tonandi’, a collaboration between Sigur Ros and Magic Leaps, is an interactive exploration of the sounds and imaginary of the Icelandic band through augmented reality. ‘A Symphony of Noise VR’ is a virtual reality interactive project based on the works by Matthew Herbert that allows the audience to create their own music compositions.

Augmented City. Augmented reality urban experiences

This new L.E.V. Matadero section will showcase different artistic experiences which use augmented reality, so that the audience may use their mobile phones to visualize the new layers of digital reality, increasingly present in our daily lives.

In this section there is also room for collective experiences such as ‘M.O.A (My Own Assistance) AR’. This interactive fiction in augmented reality is based on the book The Stealthies by Alain Damasio, which takes place in a 2040 dystopian reality. With this experience, the audience may walk around the locations of the novel and take part in the narrative using their mobile devices. This world premiere in collaboration with New Images Festival (Paris) and Bienal Chroniques (Aix en Provence & Marseille) has been developed by Marie Blondiaux and Charles Ayats, and produced by Red Corner.

Madrid artist Claudia Maté, one of the most internationally renowned net artists, will create specifically for L.E.V. Matadero a big size visual sculpture which reveals the artist’s personal references related to her home town. Using a free app for mobile devices, the audience may visualize a sculpture located in two different spaces, inside and outside the walls of Matadero Madrid. With this project, Matadero supports once more new works by Spanish artists that use day-to-day technology in a creative way.

Planet LEV Matadero. Digital Explorations

L.E.V. Matadero will have a big, immersive and collaborative virtual stage. Planet LEV is a recently created artistic experience, available both in virtual reality and for web browsers, a dreamlike universe featuring animated sculptures, sound installations, concerts and audiovisual live shows from artists all over the world, some of them in real time.

Created by Children of Cyberspace and produced by Matadero Madrid and L.E.V, the project Planet LEV was born during lockdown in order to turn these challenging times for culture into a chance to experiment with new formats.

This parallel universe is a chance to create new formats and to experiment with digital art, and it’s a new example of how Matadero supports the production and presentation of audiovisual experiments by national and international artists such as Biosphere & Initi, Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez, Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones, MSHR, Elías Merino & Sergio Millan, NPVR (Nik Void & Peter Rehgber), Boris Divider, Sabrina Ratte, Meuko Meuko!, Arcanoid, Naxs Corp, and .tape.

L.E.V. Matadero
Festival of Visual Electronica and Immersive Experiences
September 24-27 2020
Vortex: different spaces of Matadero Madrid (Nave 0, Nave 16, Workshop) and Cineteca Madrid (Plató Hall and Archive)
Augmented City: different spaces at Matadero and other locations in Madrid

Tickets
Available from September 15 at www.levfestival.com and www.mataderomadrid.org

More informationMatadero Madrid | Myriam González | comunicacion@mataderomadrid.org | M. 689 023 578

L.E.V. | Pilar Rodríguez | prensa@levfestival.org |