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duVa Personifies Digital Projections

The artist on how sensory immersion is a way of “expanding the physical and emotional limits of being alive."

When we spoke to duVa he was in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, assembling the installation Tormenta Azul Brilhante (Sparkling Blue Bluster) for the Eletronika festival. As an AV [audiovisual] artist, his preferred categorization, he fell into VJing because he wanted to show his art in nightclubs.

Tormenta Azul Brilhante

Since the early 90s, duVA’s video installations and performances have evolved along with technology, but the human body, the primary element of his work, is for him the means and the end. There's an agitation to translate and render feelings and emotions as they happen, and that's why he is interested in creating immersive ambiant experiences, such as the five-part S T O R M series. Also stemming from the desire to turn video into a physical and emotional experience came the Live Cinema exhibition, whose fourth edition took place last month in São Paulo.

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duVA’s video installation Retratos in Motion: O Beijo (Pictures in Motion: The Kiss) is currently being exhibited as part of Europalia (Belgium), the largest art festival in Europe, who are paying a tribute to Brazil this year.

Retratos in Motion: O Beijo

The artist is also preparing an solo exhibition for next year, using a series of printed photos that were catalysts for both the Tormenta Azul Brilhante video installation and the S TO R M series. "I'm interested in the way the image transitions from the camera to the installation to the performance and then back to being a still image," he says.

S T O R M [Part 1]

We had a Skype chat with duVa about breaking boundaries, his creation process and the superficial use of technology to make art.

The Creators Project: What are your particular opinions on present-day cinema, and new ways of making and showing art as seen in Live Cinema?
duVA: Honestly, I think we're still in the [stone] age. We depend on electricity, software and computers. We are crawling and trying to experiment. We haven't managed to use all the technology available to compose a total artwork blending all media, or all means. Content is still being developed poorly. Artists lack knowledge, not of technology, but rather of where they are. I actually came up with the Live Cinema exhibition to have a space to show that kind of work. The artist should have a marketing perspective. If they keep waiting, nothing will happen.

And what about your tech background?
I started off using analog editing tools and I was there during the entire digital transition to using Avid, Final Cut, etc. and that opened a new world where I could understand the image graphically. The basis of everything has always been montage. Later I became involved with software—in the beginning of my VJ career I used Final Cut, which was not created for that purpose. Then I started using Isadora, which helps develop the thought process. I want to build a partnership with someone who develops plug-ins.

What I do is not tech-art. It's the body. I use technology as a tool to personate the body. By editing, live or in the studio, I am seeking to recover the original moment when I was recording. I want people to be able to experience it physically, to live the audiovisuals.