Saturdays 30 May, 27 June and 25 July

Distances at the end of the month explores new forms of contact at a distance in a musical performance cycle to be staged on the last Saturdays of May, June and July. The different actions will be adapted to and attempt to resolve the proximity and/or distancing of each phase of the lockdown de-escalation.
Distances is a mutable cycle of experimentation in which the invited artists – rebe, Chico Blanco, Ikram Bouloum, Jessica Boston and Desert – challenge the physical format of the concert, presenting a mixed programme in which digital is not an alternative, but has been integrated into its very conception, while being freed from the limitations of the Museum walls.

The cycle starts on Saturday 30 May with rebe and Chico Blanco, two key figures from what has been dubbed the ‘bedroom producers’, artists whose world evolves within the limits of their own room, where they compose, produce and distribute their music. We will visit the bedroom of the young Madrid-based producer rebe, who at 23 has created a special world of digital intimacy that functions as a window for her creations, a sort of Björk playing Jeanette. Meanwhile, in Granada, the artist Pablo Cobo, a.k.a. Chico Blanco, is one of the benchmarks of the new urban scene, with a mixture of trap and rhythms of house and electronics. Both are key figures to understanding a new creative constellation from within four walls.

The second session, on Saturday 27 June, will feature Ikram Bouloum. Already in the Museum but as yet without an on-site audience, this sound experimenter will act as a centripetal force, a lightning rod hyper-connected to a number of artists who will meet on the virtual plane to mix their contributions. The piece will analyse repetition in a search for familiar patterns, foregrounding the mix, voice and identity.

Distances at the end of the month will close on Saturday 25 July with a performance by Desert. During the presentation of their new album This Feeling is You, the artists will seek a connection to a higher level, a hypnotic session that will release the potential of words, music and sensations. The album is the result of a collaboration between the hypno artist Jessica Boston and Desert.

Curated by Dani Cantó

Free MACBA Saturday thanks to Uniqlo:
Dissabtes MACBA
Uniqlo
rebe "Sin título"

Programme

Activity
Chico Blanco. Photo: cicutafilms

rebe and Chico Blanco

Activity
Ikram Bouloum. Photo: Anxo Casal

Ikram Bouloum

Sense of time and discrepancy:  An experimental oda for a new center
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Activity
Jessica Boston & Desert. Photo: Crista Leonard

Jessica Boston & Desert

This Feeling Is You
Saturday, July 25, 2020
A collective meditation experiment based on the physical and virtual staging of the work of the London artist and the Barcelona electronic duo.

Distances at the end of the month will close on Saturday 25 July with the hypno artist Jessica Boston and the musical duo of Desert. The artists will seek a connection to a higher level, a hypnotic session that will release the potential of words, music and sensations.

Released during lockdown, This Feeling Is You (Passat Continu, 2020) is the album resulting from the collaboration of London-based artist Jessica Boston and the Barcelona duo Desert. A network in which Boston’s words are intertwined with subtle ambient electronics in an exercise in hypnosis structured over seven songs, recalling the work of Laurie Anderson or Holly Herndon. A metaphorical path that explores different states of mind and meditation; a unique piece in which different spiritual practices go hand in hand with the spoken word and the fundamentals of rap. An experience beyond distances, capable of uniting its listeners in a state of meditation.