Felipe Vaz
(Rio de Janeiro 1971)
Felipe Vaz is a brazilian sound artist and researcher living and working in Berlin. His artistic practice started as an instrumentalist in the 1990s and has dislocated to the broader sound arts in recent years. His works expand musical language through the establishment of new connections between sound, processes, and temporal and spatial settings, also engaging the symbolic values of appropriated musical discourses.
Between 2006 and 2012, Felipe coordinated the development of Overmundo, an online community awarded with the Golden Nica in the Ars Electronica Prize in 2007. During the 2000s, he participated with installations and performances in venues and exhibitions such as Verbo (Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, 2006), Arte e Som (Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2008) and Geração Eletrônica (Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, 2005).
In 2013 and 2014, he was an artist-in-residence in L’Estruch (Sabadell) and in EART (Barcelona), participated in ArtsSònica (Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona), and participated in group shows SomSonidoSò, 11 Canciones para Anita, Cueva de Sonidos, Algorave Barcelona, Cau d’Orella and Mixtur, in Barcelona.
In 2015 he participated in Cemitério do Peixe – Morte e Magia nas Artes Visuais, Ocupação Arte Sonora (Castelinho do Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro), Quero te encontrar (La Maudite, Paris), and Bienal da Caixa de Novos Artistas in seven brazilian cities. Recently he had works shown in Festival In-Sonora (Casa Encendida, Madri) and White Noise Festival (Fonoteca Nacional, Ciudad de México).
As a researcher, he concluded his master’s degree in Communications in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, with the master thesis “Elements of Sound Art”. Currently he participates in the Masterstudiengang Sound Studies at UdK/Berlin.
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I believe that, in order to expand the reach of sound and music, we must examine the elements around them and how they relate to one another. This includes the conditions in which they are produced and consumed.
After a long while working as a musician, I started to experiment with different media in order to question some assumptions around sound and music. In my works, non-aural elements redirect the beholder’s focus, attempting to create new relationships between sounds, their environment and different concepts, thus generating new experiences based on existing works.
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