MEM is an annual cultural festival celebrating local and international electronic, extreme and experimental acts. MEM festival happens in November in Bilbao (Basque Country Spain). There you can find dance, theatre, music, environment art, video, film, net-art, performance, readings, master classes and a lot of fun. MEM support transgressor projects in a moment in which creation don¹t take many risks. MEM combine high technology with a counter-culture view, punk heritage, “do it yourself”, and thought and criticism. MEM state a Bilbao between two worlds, a reminiscence of industrial pollution and a new Bilbao of the information era and new technologies. MEM combine international and local views, looking for a fruitful dialogue among all different participant artists. MEM show aggressive and experimental projects that other festivals hardly hold in, but it’s hardly valued the conceptual reflection, artists meetings and ludic moments. MEM is critical, transgressor and funny festival. MEM has also his own webspace: www.musicaexmachina.com and his own publication: MEM Codex (in Spanish, Basque and English).
Lecture:
“Soundart in the Basque Country Today” by Txema Agiriano. A short lecture explaining sound art in the Basque Country today: Artists, labels, works, festivals, etc.
Selection of Video Works by four artists of the Basque Country:
Bubi Canal “Polavision” 2’16”
Iván Gómez “Recuerdos de un tacto / “Recollection of a Touch” 2’56”
Daniel Llaría Gaspar “A forest / a theatre” 4’09”
Ignacio Sáez (aka La Lengua Obesa / Thick tongue) “Studio” 5’00”
Jesús Pueyo & Oier Etxeberria “Sin titulo. Super 8″ 2′30″
Live Concert: BASELINE (Pilar Baizan)
Baseline is the sound-art project, work of the polifacetic artist from Bilbao, born in Gijón, Pilar Baizán.
Baseline is electronic industrial sound, of deep and dense textures; her work is rhythmic, noisy, emotional, visceral, sensual. It’s necessary to listen, to feel. Baizán started by including sound in video-art, where she already used loops and her own recordings and little by little, she developed her musical side until she formed Baseline, which really came about as an independent Project in 2004.
She starts working with glitches, field recordings, sounds of synthesis. She manipulates loops and sound fragments to make dense and heavy compositions. She often accompanies her shows with video, which are intended to provide more depth to the sound, an idea which comes from video-art. She has played in the Festivals of experimental music as: Festival MEM (Bilbao - Spain), Festival LEM (Barcelona - Spain), Festival SONAR (Barcelona - Spain), SONIC CIRCUITS FESTIVAL (WASHINTONG D.C.), EXPERIMENTACLUB (Madrid - Spain) among others . In addition, she has taken part with her sound in artistic projects, as “GALLETERAS.MEMORIA ACTIVA”, Exhibition “ALLENDE LA PUENTE” etc