LIVE CINEMA
PERFORMANCE (2001-2008 aka SOLU)
FIGURE DE LA TERRE (opera)
Live animation and generative visuals
2013
Makela created a visual world for the opera work FIGURE DE LA TERRE, which told the story of Christine, who lived in Finnish Lapland in the 18th century. She met the French earth measuring expedition leader Maupertuis and followed him to Paris. In Paris Christine and her female friend appeared in the court, where they caused a scandal due emancipation. These events caught also the attention of Voltaire. The traces of Christine disappeared in the roar of the revolution.
The piece consisted of two different projections. In one, live animation was projected onto a large background screen in the background of the stage, and in the other, generative visuals were projected onto the stage. Makela uses the shadows of the singers as part of the visuals, which are mixed with the pre-recorded shadows used in the animations. The aesthetics of the Lapland and Paris sections differ from each other. Pohjola's visuals are woodcut-like and naturally primitive. In the algorithm, the aurora borealis, which in Paris have changed to light reflected through colored glass. In Paris, the visuals are created by human hands, which can be seen e.g. in the wallpaper patterns.
Premiere and further performances at Sophiensaale. Berlin
DIRECTION Jaakko Nousiainen
COMPOSITION Miika Hyytiäinen
LIVE ANIMATION Mia Makela
VISUAL PROGRAMMING Eva Schindling
MUSICAL DIRECTION, CEMBALO Daniel Trumbull
CHRISTINE (SOPRANO) Estelle Lefort
MAUPERTUIS (TENOR) Matthias Monrad Møller
VIOLA Raphaëlle Pacault
VIOLIN Anna Fusek
CELLO Tabea Schrenk
COSTUMES Lisa Kentner
DRAMATURGy Dag Lohde, Susanna Heise
PHOTOGRAPHY Axel Lambert
Produced by Dag Lohde und René Dombrowski.
FUNDING
Hauptstadtkulturfonds
Schering Stiftun.
KONE foundation
Finnish Institute
Arts Promotion Centre Finland
Supported by Karl-Hofer-Gesellschaft, Universität der Künste Berlin, Uferstudios and SOPHIENSÆLE.
Z
Generative visual set
2013
M
Generative visual set
2011
In collaboration with programmer Eva Schindling and Pierce Warnecke, two generative visuals sets for violonist Mia Zabelka´s live tours: M and Z.
Performances/Screenings:
Phonofemme. ViennaGallery, Suvi Lehtinen. Berlin, ViennaVerein 08.Vienna, Museum of contemporary art. Warsaw, Firemuseum. Philadelphia, GEZ 21 Art Center. St. Petersburg, DOM Cultural Center. Moskow, The Museum of Anna and Anastasia Tcvetaevy.Alexandrov City, La General.Paris, Fluc. Vienna, MIM & MORE Gallery. Berlin, Galerie Mana.Wien, University of the Streets. New York, Media-Scape.Zagreb, Long Arms Festival. Moskow, St.Petersburg, Yaroslavl City, Alexandrov City, etc
SUONOMBRA
Live Cinema
2011
Simple and elemental, shades of sound and image are presented, de- and reconstructed around a swirling play of dark and light, object and reflection. Echoes and shades of sonic and visual entities become etheric sense objects in a live intermedial organic and electronic piece. A flowing stream of images depict Icelandic nature, each frame resemble a living landscape painting in a continuous, viscous perceptive moment.
Video: Mia Makela
Performances:
Phonofemme. Vienna 2011 with Zahra Mani
Trendelenburg. Gijon 2012 with Zahra Mani
AAVE-festivaali. Helsinki 2012
with Tero Vänttinen
Experimental Settings.USP. Sao Paolo 2013
with Marcus Bastos and Dudu Tsuda
AVA/FLATBACK Festival.Birmingham.UK 2015
with James Andean
Support :
AVEK, Arts Council of Finland
Thanks: Gullkistan Residency. Iceland
KAAMOS TRILOGY
Live Cinema Fairy tale
2007-09
Video:
Mia Makela
Audio: Circle: Jäljet Kontackto:
Mustikkaa Silmissä
Mika Vainio: Kotiin
PERFORMANCE
Audio: Arbol
Distribution
AV-ARKKI
HAMACA
Selected performances and screenings:
2011
Suomesta Gallery, Berlin
2010
Exteresa Arte Actual. Mexico City
Mediascape. Zagreb
Future Now. Tenerife
Proyector2010.Madrid
ACAD.Calgary
Alpha-ville. London
Museo de Huelva. Huelva
Das Kurzfilmfestival. Berlin
Tots Sants Group Show.Barcelona
2009
LaLaboral. Gijon
Transmediale. Berlin
Moves. Manchester
RECMadrid. Madrid
Banff Center. Banff
New Forms Festival. Vancouver
USC. Los Angeles
Paysages Electroniques. Lille
2008
Festival do Rio. Rio de Janeiro
TM_preview. Konsthall Malmö
Sonarcinema. Barcelona
The Tate Britain. London
Cinesthesy. Paris
Cimatics. Brussels
2006 - 2007
Caixaforum. Barcelona
National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Washington
GEHEIMNISSE EINER SEELE
Remix project
2009
The Austrian director G.W. Pabst's silent film "Geheimnisse einer Seele" (The Secrets of a Soul, 1926) is based on one of Sigmund Freud's case studies. It was the first film that addressed psychoanalysis and combines abstract and surreal dream sequences with scenes from an everyday bourgeois world. The film grows out of this tension between two mutually exclusive worlds, which each threaten the existence of the other. The story and structure of the film provide a good starting point for music that exists on the boundaries between contemporary composed and improvised music.
The video score, which Mia Makela will play live during the performance, consists of new combinations of shots, scenes, people, objects, places and sceneries from the original silent film. The complexity of the graphic material contributes to the psychological and visual complexity of the performance as whole, which merges the unmistakable aesthetics of expressionist silent film with the experimental adventures of contemporary sound and moving image composition and performance.
The visuals fulfill the function of a score for the one.night.band musicians, who "read" it from their video monitors and who as a sound body reflect the conscious and subconscious complexity of human existence, where the whole consists of individual parts, each complete, in some way self-contained yet always interactive and interdependent on the other elements. The essence of the ensemble lies in each individual member's personal contributions to the sound, each individual background, thought process and way of playing.
PERFORMANCES
Video: Mia Makela
Vienna Konzerthaus 2009
Mia Zabelka _ E-Violin, Voice, Electronics, Laptop
Zahra Mani _ Laptop, Contrabass
Franz Hautzinger _ Trompete
Manon-Liu Winter _ Piano
Martin Janicek _ Percussion
Audio at other performances:
Mia Zabelka _ E-Violin, Voice, Electronics, Laptop
Zahra Mani _ Laptop, Contrabass
Sophiensaale. Berlin 2010Composers
Mia Zabelka _ E-Violin, Voice, Electronics, Laptop
Zahra Mani _ Laptop, Contrabass
Lounge.Vienna 2010
Mia Zabelka _ E-Violin, Voice, Electronics, Laptop
Zahra Mani _ Laptop, Contrabass
ENG:
A search for light in darkness by digital shamanistic means, as a physical experience of inner exploration during the dark months in the northern parts of Finland. Two women are traveling thru forests looking for a spring known for its magical healing powers, a cure for blindness. On their return it is revealed their way back home is not to be found anymore.
"Kaamos Trilogy is a total artwork, which condenses its potential narrative thread within the few images constantly repeated and permutated within an expanded, hovering, time frame. In a meditative, almost trancelike state, Mia Makela juxtaposes the narrative abstraction typical of music videos with digital pictorial practices, thereby developing a new poetic dimension of the audiovisual field."
(HAMACA Catalogue)
ESP:
“Kaamos trilogy” es un tríptico sobre las interrelaciones del individuo, el espacio natural que le rodea y el ambiente que modula su sensibilidad durante la preparación, casi mística, a los meses de oscuridad finlandesa: “Kaamos”.
Obra total en la que el relato, siempre en potencia, se condensa en pocas imágenes repetidas permutando entre sí en un tiempo en suspensión expandida. En un estado de meditación, casi trance, Mia Makela yuxtapone la abstracción narrativa del video clip con las prácticas pictóricas digitales desarrollando esta nueva sensibilidad poética del audiovisual. Las sombras articulan la visión de dos mujeres que se internan hacia el centro de un bosque en busca de una mágica cura de la ceguera, al salir de él no encuentran el camino de vuelta, o se han perdido o el mundo ha cambiado ante la oscuridad finlandesa que se aproxima.
Latente está la figura del gurú, no sólo como persona que disipa la oscuridad de la ignorancia, sino en su sentido literal: «en algunos textos se describe que las dos sílabas de la palabra señalan el movimiento de la oscuridad (gu) a la luz (ru)». En kaamos la historia central es la búsqueda de luz en la oscuridad de un modo chamánico digital, como una experiencia física de sondeo interno.
YA SOLO HABLA DE AMOR
Spoken word / visual improvisation
2009
Video: Mia Makela
Word: Ray Loriga
PERFORMANCE
Camon, Alicante 2009
Makela was invited to collaborate with Spanish writer Ray Loriga, to create visual dialogue with a recital of his book Ya Solo Habla de Amor (Now Only Talks of Love). She created a remix with Tarkovsky´s films and improvised with the spoken word performance.
NINE (IX)
Audiovisual Performance
2008
Video: Mia Makela
Audio: Hildur Guddnadottir
Sound/ Performance: Kate Pendry
SCREENINGS
Suomesta Galleria, Berlin 2011
PERFORMANCES
Fylkingen. Stockholm.2008
HCB.Berlin 2009
This project has received funding from
NORDIC CULTURE POINT
LARM
ARTS COUNCIL OF FINLAND
NINE is part of SENSING CHANNELS
LARM invited three nordic performing artists to collaborate: Kate Pendry from Oslo, Icelandic Hildur Guddnadottir and Finnish Mia Makela. The artists met first time in Reykjavik where they started the collaboration with “pre-historical” experience of the famous Blue Lagoon. IX consists of 9 prophecies written by Kate Pendry. She acts as an oracle teller throughout the performance, following the traditional role of women interpretators of divine messages in the ancient Greece. HIldur plays the cello, while Mia fills the space with visuals projected on screen and smoke. Enchanting experience.
CANCIONES PARA PEDRO ALMODOVAR
Remix project
2008
Video: Mia Makela
Audio: Alberto Iglesias/ RTVE orchestra
PERFORMANCE
Noche en Blanco, Madrid 2008
El Catálogo de la Noche en Blanco:
"La noche en blanco homenajeará al cineasta manchego, que tantas veces ha retratado Madrid al menos once de sus largometrajes con un concierto-homenaje a la música de sus películas. en dos partes. En la primera la Orquesta de Radio Televisión Española interpretará versiones de las bandas sonoras más célebres de su filmografía, compuestas por el músico Alberto Iglesias, y adaptadas para la ocasión por el propio autor ( Premio Nacional de Cinematografía). Mientras suena la música, en las pantallas se suceden algunas de las escenas más memorables del universo almodovariano, “pinchadas” en directo por la videojockey finlandesa SOLU, una maestra del género."
Mia Makela was invited to create a remix of Pedro Almodovars filmography to celebrate the director at Noche en Blanco event in Madrid. Makela went meticulously thru his 16 films by date, studying his techniques and created a 20-min remake to the compositions of Alberto Iglesias. The music was performed by the Spanish RTVE orchestra outdoors for an audience of 4000 people.
RAMSCAPES
Visual set
2001-2005
Video: Mia Makela
Audio: various
PERFORMANCES
all around the globe, including :
Monkey Town. New York 2006
Banff Center. Banff 2006
AVIT.UK. Birmingham 2005
Transmediale. Berlin 2005
Mapping festival. Geneva 2005
Test Portal. Amsterdam 2005
EXIT FESTIVAL. Novi Sad 2005
C/O POP 2005. Cologne 2005
NETLACH. Bilbao 2005
TRANSITIO_MX. Mexico City 2005
Club Transmediale, Berlin 2004
Sonic Acts. Amsterdam 2004
Zagreb Music Biennale 2003
Pixelache. Helsinki 2003
KSET. Wien 2003
UKIYO-E
2004
FIELD REPORTS
2004
OTHER PROJECTS
Audiovisual collaborations
2004-2008
Project developed during a residency at SAT. Montreal for 2-screens. PERFORMANCES SAT, Montreal 2007 Ecoforum.Barcelona 2008 (with ARBOL) This project has received financing from ARTS COUNCIL OF FINLAND
Video+Concept:Mia Makela Code: David Cabrera, Jordi Puig, Mia Makela, Jukka Ylitalo Flash-animations: Begoña Arostequi, Susanne Karrash, Stephanie Vandendriessche, Petra Eimer, Mia Makela Audio: Banabila EXHIBITION Masters of Art-Lume Center.Helsinki 2006 Modulate Studio. Birmingham 2006 This project has received funding from AVEK ARTS COUNCIL OF FINLAND
PERFORMANCE Casa Encendida. Madrid 2007 Audio: Raul Santos (Madrid) UNAM. Mexico City 2010 Audio: Fernando Figueras (Mexico City)
Porgy and Bess in hell. Remix project , 2004 Audiovisual collaborative performance with musician C.D. (Christian Dergarabedian), based on the audio and videomaterial of the experimental American video artist Leslie Thornton (Peggy and Fred in Hell, a work that had been in process for 17 years).PERFORMANCES Fundacio tapies. Barcelona 2004 Commissioned by STITCH & SPLIT-Selves and Territories in Science Fiction organized by CONSTANT.