Sonar 2007, at its fourteenth edition, will be held in Barcelona this year from the 14th to the 16th of June. As usual the event is based on music and multimedia art, featuring bands such as Beastie Boys, Devo, Cornelius, Mogwai and Sunn o))) on the music side and including international artists like Luis Nieto, Zach Lieberman, Julien Maire, Phillip Worthington, and Mago Julien. While the music programme is eclectic, ranging from electronica to hip-hop in order to cover today’s sound aesthetics, the multimedia events revolve around the idea of magic. Sonarmatica, the visual art section, takes inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Organised by well established curator Jose Luis de Vicente and cultural producer OscarAbril Ascaso, SonarMatica decided this year to focus on something different from the new concept of contemporary territory developed during last three edition (micro-nations in 2004, settings of the 21st century in 2005and the mobile project of 2006). In an era when people are more and more disenchanted with the potential of technology, the aim is to rediscover the magic involved in invention and science with references to the spectacular experience of magic shows and cinema experiments of the late nineteenth century. Apart from the exhibition which consist mainly of interactive installations, interesting tricks of magic and technology, under the title ‘Et Voila!’, are scheduled throughout the day. Completing the event a series of talks like Digital à la Carte, “a showcase of interactive menus where music, audio and new softwares collide to reshape the meaning of contemporary art”, featuring Mediateletipos.net, Niu and Alessandro Ludovico.

Valentina Culatti