Silvania "Biennal of Venice"

Electronic two piece SILVANIA have composed music for the three installations Spanish artist Ana Laura Alaez presented in the 49th edition of the Biennal of Venice.

Mario and Cocó form SILVANIA in 1990. They blend electronics, pop and avant-garde in a very peculiar way, standing out of Spanish independent scene throughout the nineties. Five albums and collateral works as RADIO, GALAX and CIELO are the results of the creative skills of these two people.

The artistic offer of multimedia artist Ana Laura Alaez includes architecture, design, films, sculpture, photography, boasting a juvenile aesthetic close to club culture. Among her most celebrated works we find “Prototipo-estudio para un artista del nuevo milenio” (Proyect Room Arco 99 and Apertuto in 48º Venice Biennal) and “She in the outer space”, Stambul Biennal, 1997.

In the year 2000 Ana Laura invites SILVANIA to present their music in her “Dance and Disco” installation: a discotheque transposed to a such prestigious museum as Reina Sofia, in Madrid. This gesture of installing a full-detail recreation of a leisure/meeting space in an almost sacred place created a very fruitful controversy both in media and audience. It was installed to coincide with the opening of Art Fair Arco 00, and a long queue of people was formed at the entrance, as in a “real” discotheque.

Due to a strong artistic affinity between Ana Laura Alaez and SILVANIA, they decide to carry on working together. The installations created by the artist start to require music as an architectural element. Next collaboration takes place in Korea’s Biennal in 2000. There Ana Laura presents an installation called “Brothel”, that has already been premiered in Bonn’s Kunst Museum a year before; but this time it’s accompanied by an eponymous music created by SILVANIA.

Another collaboration for 2000: SILVANIA write the score “The sky is blue” to go with “Liquid Sky”, a new installation by Ana Laura that is premiered in Buenos Aires Arts Museum.

On 2001 they keep on investigating, trying to find a different way of mixing art and music. “Magic strapes” is the nexus of moving images of two videos of the same title. Music and camera movements intercross in an abstract interpretation of rhythm gymnastics. “Magic strapes” was premiered in Valencia’s BIDA Biennal in June 2001.

In the same month, artists Ana Laura Alaez and Javier Pérez represent Spain in the 49th edition of Venice Biennal, the most prestigious art fair in the world. Ana Laura Alaez‘s contribution is composed of three installations, all of them featuring music composed by SILVANIA. They are vital architectures that blend themselves with lights, sound and space:
1) the aforementioned “Liquid sky”: a big platform made of leds, as an inverted sky. It’s structured thanks to the almost liquid sound.
2) “Rain room”: here the sound of rain is pursued, as a sound model of a space both wet and mental. For this installation SILVANIA composed the score“Washing”.
3) “Pink space”: SILVANIA write the song “Floating” for this one. This score features vocals by Ana Laura Alaez herself. “Floating” mixes technology and melancholy with a strong pop ambient.

Cocó, one of the members in SILVANIA, was invited by the Spanish Foreign Office to do a Dj session in the party host by the Spanish Pavillion in Venice’s Biennal. The party took place in the Armanio College.

Ana Laura Alaez and SILVANIA plan to keep on collaborating in the future. Their most inminent work is an installation in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, on late 2001.