Francisco López

Untitled #223

January 13 - March 29, 2010 /
Nouvel Building, Floor 4

Francisco López (Madrid, 1964) is one of the key exponents of experimental and electroacoustic music. His sound installations acknowledge the power of sound to transcend the perception and emotions of the people that participate in them. López has created Sin título #223 (Untitled #223) for the Museo Reina Sofía, a piece of sound art with specific sounds for a place with metal walls and ceilings and unusual dimensions - it is located in an unorthodox place in the Museo, in a metal corridor in the Edificio Nouvel. López has chosen the location for its acoustic conditions and installs a sound system that invites visitors to become submerged in a virtual sound world with extreme contrasts. He favours the exploration of sound as well as our own interior, hence the rejection of visual aspects as he leaves the installation in almost complete darkness, enabling him to penetrate a “virtual reality of sound” in a kind of ritual that is both collective and individual.

López is internationally recognised as one of the key figures in experimental music. His experience in the sphere of sound creation and his field recording work spans over more than two decades, in which time he has developed a highly personal and iconoclastic universe of sound that explores the limits of perception whilst also looking for sensorial and spiritual expansion through sound. In his manipulation of natural recordings, over the years this biologist/musician has developed the foundations of what is known as “absolute concrete music”, an approach to sound that uses nature as a springboard for recreating strangely beautiful parallel worlds and virtual realities.

López has performed hundreds of concerts, conducted field recording projects and produced sound installations in 50 countries and in some of the most important international museums, galleries and festivals. His extensive catalogue of sound pieces has been edited by 150 record companies around the world and he has collaborated with more than 100 international artists, both live and in the studio.

Francisco López has received honourable mentions on two occasions at the Ars Electrónica festival along with first prize in the First Sound Art Competition 'Broadcasting Art', jointly organised by RNE (Spanish National Radio) and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC).

Exhibition´s details

Organized by: 
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Artists:
Francisco López
Program:
Fisuras