Press Release RVM·PyR 2014. Reykjavík, Iceland by Noel Palazzo

:: Reykjavík Visual Music · Punto y Raya Festival 2014 A feast of pure Colour, Motion and Sound. Non-representational Art takes the lead at the first edition of Reykjavík Visual Music · Punto y Raya Festival, which will take place from January 30th to February 2nd 2014 at HARPA, the Reykjavík Concert Hall, and Listasafn Reykjavíkur, the Reykjavík Art Museum (Iceland). The programme features live performances by major artists like Ryoji Ikeda and Ryoichi Kurokawa; specially commissioned opening concerts by Sigurður Guðjónsson + Anna Þorvaldsdóttir & Bret Battey + Hugi Guðmundsson; guest Austrian and Polish Film panoramas, and the selected works in the international live set & short-film Competitions, which brought together nearly 500 artists from 46 countries. Born from a joint effort between RCVM (Reykjavík Center for Visual Music - Iceland) and Punto y Raya (Dot&Line Festival in Spain, now in its fifth edition), the Reykjavík Visual Music · Punto y Raya Festival invites all audiences to leave preconceptions behind and give in to the overwhelming power of pure artistic expression, in what promises to be the greatest event in the history of abstract live-cinema and film. Parallel activities include the Cadences of Colour and Line exhibit at Listasafn Reykjavíkur (February 1st to April 13th) and the 2014 Academy Programme, comprising workshops open to local students and general audiences, and tutored by renowned professionals in the field. The festival is also collaborating with Dark Music Days for the opening concert. >> myrkir.is All info at puntoyrayafestival.com | facebook/puntoyrayafestival rcvm.is | facebook/rvmfestival

:: PROGRAMME

Guest Live Cinema Sessions >> Thursday, January 30 th 2014 | 10.00 pm · HARPA Silfurberg Room We’re opening the festival with deluxe concerts commissioned specially by Reykjavík Center for Visual Music, in collaboration with Dark Music Days.

Bret Battey 1967 | USA

| Triptych Unfolding

Hugi Guðmundsson 1977 | Iceland

Battey creates electronic, acoustic and multimedia concert works and installations. He has been a Fulbright Fellow to India and a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and he has received recognitions and prizes from several international festivals. >> mti.dmu.ac.uk/~bbattey Guðmundsson studied composition at the Reykjavik College of Music; he got his Master degree in Composition from the Royal Danish Academy of Music and his second Master in Electronic Music from the Institute of Sonology, Netherlands. Nominated five times to the Icelandic Music Awards, he received the award in 2013. >> hugigudmundsson.com

| Trajectories

Sigurður Guðjónsson

Anna þorvaldsdóttir

1975 | Iceland

1977 | Iceland

Gudjónsson makes videos where image, sound, and space form a seamless whole. He finds his ideas in his immediate environment, often in abandoned places. His body of work ranges from single and multichannel video works, sound and installations. >> sigurdurgudjonsson.net þorvaldsdóttir frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. >> annathorvalds.com

Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir (Islandia) | Piano Educated as a classical pianist Tinna plays all the styles of the piano repertoire, although 21st century music is her main passion. Prepared piano, electronics, toy piano and theatre pieces often show up on her programs. >> annit.com

>> Friday, January 31st 2014 | 10.30 pm · HARPA Silfurberg Room

Ryoichi Kurokawa | syn_ Japan · Germany Award-winning Japanese artista Ryoichi Kurokawa is one of the world’s most exciting talents in the digital arts. His impressive audiovisual compositions bring visual and sonic material together using a completely revolutionary perspective. In Kurokawa’s language, a new benchmark in the world of digital art, field recording and computer-generated structures coexist in harmony, and open the gateway to an imaginary world where complexity and simplicity alternate and combine in a strange symbiosis. >> ryoichikurokawa.com

>> Saturday, February 1st 2014 | 10.30 pm · HARPA Silfurberg Room

Ryoji Ikeda | datamatics [ver. 2.0] Japan · France Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations. >> ryojiikeda.com

RVM Live Cinema Competition 102 proposals from 30 countries were submitted to the first Reykjavík Visual Music call for entries! These are the sets selected to participate in the festival.

>> Friday, January 31st 2014 | 6.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg # A

Usanigingen Live Japan · Germany Usaginingen create graphic design, movies, music and live performances. The team invented their own machines seeking to delight and suprise the audience: the TA-CO (for the creation of visuals) and the SHIBAKI (for creating sound). Both are prototypes, unique in the world. >> usaginingen.com

D-Fuse + Labmeta |Tektōn United Kindgom London-based collective exploring the wide variety of media communication. Working with transdisciplinary methods and top-of-the-art technology, they collaborated with music acts such as Scanner, Beck, Steve Reich and the Italian ensemble Alter Ego. >> dfuse.com

>> Saturday, February 1st 2014 | 6.30 pm · HARPA Silfurberg #A

Max Hattler + VesperOn | Hattlerizer 2.0 Germany · United Kingdom + Spain Max Hattler is a London-based moving image artist educated at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art. Animator and director, he also performs live visuals, and has collaborated with music acts like Basement Jaxx, Julien Mier, Jovanotti, Pixelord, The Egg, and Jemapur. >> maxhattler.com

Robin Kobrynski | Combustion 1976 | Grenoble · France Robin Kobrynski aka Rko’s work focuses on performance and immersive audiovisual formats. Rko is also a graphic designer and filmmaker. In 2005 he created the V-Atak label, devoted to the release/publication of audio and video works. >> v-atak.com/artists/rko-whois

Abstract Film & Animation Sections 2014 Punto y Raya Competition No representation! Only Dots & Lines as ends in themselves. 371 films from 46 countries in 5 continents were submitted to the fifth call for entries of the “most abstract festival in the world”. The 96 selected films will be screened in FULL HD, structured in seven 50’ modules.

>> Friday, January 31st 2014 | 1.30pm – 6.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg #B

With the presence of: Sabrina Schmid, Ryan Olivier, Aurora Gasull Altisent, Nagore Etxabe, Ian Helliwell, Kathryn Marshall, Terry Trickett, Matt Abbiss, Paul Rabe, Dan Browne, Tim Wright, Inga Krikciukaite, Bonnie Mitchell, Marcin Giżycki, John Osborne, Paul Fletcher & Bret Battey.

>> Saturday, February 1st 2014 | 1.00pm – 4.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg #B

With the presence of: Max Hattler, Petronio Bendito, Dennis H. Miller & Jan Goldfuss.

>> Sunday, February 2nd 2014 | 1.30pm – 4.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg #B

With the presence of: Mark Cheung, Carlín Díaz, Matt Abbiss, D-Fuse, Warren Stringer, Tim Wright, Markus Feder, Lisi Prada, Ying Tan & Max Hattler.

Guest Short-Film Sessions >> Saturday, February 1st 2014 | 4.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg #B

Polish Short-Film Panorama Curated and introduced by Ania Głowińska, programme coordinator of the ANIMATOR International Animated Film Festival in Poznań. This Calling Once Again for Pure Film section recuperates Józef Robakowski’s Manifesto for Pure Film, discussing the perception and evolution of Polish abstract cinema through time. Not only does it seek to show examples of the Polish animation tradition, but also to observe the evolution of the genre and to reflect upon the perception of abstract cinema. The films will be screened in FULL HD, and we’ll hold a Q&A session to conclude.

>> Sunday, February 2nd 2014 | 4.30pm · HARPA Silfurberg #B

Austrian Short-Film Panorama Curated and introduced by Thomas Renoldner, co-curator of the “Animation Avantgarde” programmes at the Vienna Independent Shorts Filmfestival, and many other screenings. Under the eloquent title Abstraction and Orgnanic forms / structures, this section proposes an intense journey through the history of Austrian abstract cinema and its particular relation to Nature, from the stroboscopic discs of Simon von Stampfer (1832), to the quasi-pictorial expressionism of Martin Anibas (1990), the complex computer-generated imagery of LIA (2008) or the flickering abstraction of Billy Roisz (2012). The films will be screened in FULL HD, and we’ll hold a Q&A session to conclude.

2014 Academy Programme Academy for Students Music, design, architecture and fine art students will participate in the animation, realtime visuals and code programming workshops at Listasafn Reykjavíkur. The tutors are renowned international professionals in the field.

Olga Wroniewicz (Poland) · Animation exploring Icelandic music Juanjo Fernández (Spain) · Mapping & Light-Drawing on Location Kike Ramírez (Spain) · Moving Dots & Lines in Processing Ajay Tiwari & Jignesh Khakhar (India) · Tengia: Mixed-media animation Warren Stringer (USA) · Sinthesizing Live Visual Music

Open Academy Additional Masterclasses, Screenings and Presentations open to general audiences.

>>Friday, January 31st 2014 | 12.30pm · Listaháskóli Íslands Bret Battey (USA·UK) Visual Music in the Digital Age A perspective of the development of the genre in the Western World.

>>Friday, January 31st 2014 | 9.00 pm · HARPA Silburberg HALL Richard Tuohy (Australia) Dot Matrix Expanded Cinema Performance featuring a 16mm twin projection.

>>Saturday, February 1st 2014 | 10.30 am · HARPA Silfurberg HALL Marcin Giżicky (Poland) Improvising Abstract Animation Explore the Aquamation technique devised by Giżycki, which involves painting with water on Japanese disappearing image paper.

>>Sunday, February 2nd 2014 | 12.00 am · HARPA Silburberg # B Ajay Tiwari & Jignesh Khakhar (India) Abstract animation created by NID students Presentation and screening of some works produced by Experimental Animation students at the National Institute of Design.

:: PARALLEL ACTIVITIES February 1st – April 13th 2014 Listasafn ReykjavÍkur

Cadences of Line and Color The exhibition showcases works of art in the spirit of “visual music.”, and it’s structured in three parts: a historical background established through its main pioneers; the Trajectories installation, and a section curated by Hafþór Yngvason, Yean Fee Quay & Jón Proppé. Opening: Saturday, February 1st at 8.00 pm >> artmuseum.is

Island!a360 Excursions Visit the main locations in the island, without missing a single festival activity! Thursday, January 30th 11.00 am - Golden Circle Friday, January 31st 9.00 am - Blue Lagoon Saturday, February 1st 12 am - Northern Lights >> islandia360.com

:: VENUES

HARPA · Reykjavík Concert Hall Austurbakki 2 · 101 Reykjavík · Iceland Tel.: (+354) 528 5000 >> harpa.is

Harpa opened its doors in May 2011 and is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera. Silfurberg # A: With a capacity of 600 people, this portion of the Silfurberg Room will host the live sets in the competition. Silfurberg # B: 350 seats. Here, we’ll will host the Short·Film Screenings. Silfurberg Hall: With a capacity of 100 people, this is a dynamic space and meeting point.

Founded in 1973, the Reykjavík Art Museum is the largest visual art institution in Iceland. Hafnarhus, its experimentation and research centre, is located only 300m away from HARPA.

LISTASAFN REYKJAVÍKUR Reykjavík Art Museum Tryggvagötu 17 · 101 Reykjavík · Iceland Tel.: (+354) 590-1200 >> artmuseum.is

The museum will host the Cadences of Line and Color exhibit, and the workshops in the 2014 Academy Programme.

:: ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE THURSDAY, JANUARY 30th 2014 10.00 pm | OPENING AUDIOVISUAL CONCERT: Bret Battey + Hugi Guðmundsson I Triptych Unfolding (USA-UK · Iceland) & Sigurður Guðjónsson + Anna Þorvaldsdóttir I Trajectories (Iceland) HARPA | Silfurberg room

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2 nd 2014 12.30 pm | OPEN ACADEMY: Abstract animation created by NID students (India) HARPA | Silfurberg Hall 1.30 pm | SCREENING + Q&A: Official Competition: Reel #6 HARPA | Silfurberg #B 3.00 pm | SCREENING + Q&A: Official Competition: Reel #7 HARPA | Silfurberg #B 4.30 pm | GUEST SCREENING + Q&A: Austrian Short-Film Panorama HARPA | Silfurberg #B 6.30 pm | AWARD CEREMONY + ROUND TABLE with artists in attendance + SCREENING of the awarded films HARPA | Silfurberg Hall

:: TICKET SALES >> harpa.is Opening Audiovisual Concert: € 10 Ryoji Ikeda Audiovisual Concert: € 17 | Ryoichi Kurokawa Audiovisual Concert: € 17 RVM·PyR PASS: € 35 Reykjavík Art Museum Daily Pass: € 8 ALL OTHER festival activities are with FREE ADMISSION until full capacity is reached.

:: ORGANISERS Reykjavík Center for Visual Music & Punto y Raya have partnered to produce the greatest event devoted to abstract visual music and film in the history of the genre.

MAD [Moviment d’Alliberament Digital] Non-profit association devoted to cultural engineering through the development of projects involving Art, Science and Technology. Creators and organisers of Punto y Raya, the “most abstract festival in the World”, with four editions under its belt: La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2007), Arts Santa Mònica (Barcelona, 2009), Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid, 2011), and the JUNIOR edition at the CCCB (Barcelona 2012) MAD are Ana Santos and Nöel Palazzo >> puntoyrayafestival.com | facebook/puntoyrayafestival

RCVM [Reykjavík Center for Visual Music] Founded in the fall of 2012 by Friðrik Steinn Kristjánsson. Its mission is to foster the development of Visual Music in Iceland. The center is funded by the Silfurberg Art Fund. >> rcvm.is | facebook/rvmfestival

:: COLLABORATORS