Gil Delindro

Gil Delindro was artist in residence from Jan – June 2022. You can see his end of residency booklet, with an essay by Gil here. Gil is a sound and visual artist whose practice is rooted in environmental and site-specific work. For the last seven years, he has conducted research on worldwide challenging landscapes, isolated rural communities, and extreme weather patterns. These include the African Sahara Desert (TWOM 2015), Canada Manitoba (Cluster 2016), the Rainforests of Brazil (Resiliência 2017), Siberia, Russia (Permafrost 2018) North Vietnam ethnic villages (Blind Signal 2019), and most recently the Swiss Alps (La Becque artist residency 2019).

In 2016 he was selected by SHAPE platform, being commissioned by reference festivals such as MusikProtokoll (AU), Novas Frequências (BR), CynetArt (DE) Athens Digital Arts Fest(GR), ARS Eletronica(AU), Submerge festival(UK), Semibreve(PT), Lisboa Soa(PT). Being positively reviewed in the press by Berlin Art Link(DE), ORF1(AU), Musikworks (CA), NEURAL magazine (IT), The Quietus (UK), BoundBaw Science and Biodesign (JP).

Reference exhibitions include: ” Permafrost ” LAboral, Gijon; “BADaward – Biological Clocks of the Universe” – MU Art Center, Netherlands; “A grain within this cloud of Dust” – Gallery im Turm, Berlin; “ A perennial earth” – Goethe Institute Vietnam; “Harbour” – Living Art Lab, Amsterdam; “To bough and to bend” Bridge Projects, Los Angeles; “Fictional Forest” Triennal de Arquitectura, Lisboa.

He is the co-founder of “Rural Vivo”, a cross-disciplinary association dedicated to ecological, educational, and cultural activities in the UNESCO Gerês Reserve (North Portugal), whose main objective is to fight the loss of cultural opportunities in the Nordic rural villages, and innovatie on the ecological preservation of the region.

Among others he has collaborated with labels such as “Tzadik” NY, “Sonoscopia” Porto, “Ausland” Berlin.

Gil welcomed visitors to Highgreen for an Open Studio event in Feb and in May he facilitated a walk and experimental sound workshop. Later in May, Gil had an end of residency exhibition which featured an ambitious installation in the cart shed of a giant rotating ball of moss.

“My intention is to examine the rich diversity of the Northumberland territory, creating a map of different locations, where I will be focusing on acoustic phenomena with a motivation to access the intangible qualities of the landscape.

I’m interested in using different technologies to examine selected parts of the region and hopefully contribute with a new form of engagement for local communities and researchers. These recordings will be the basis for studio work and the creation of new media Sculptural pieces, where I use both organic components and technologic ones.”

“Beyond the Audible” is a series of research works where I explore the potential relations between isolation, agricultural, rural and landscape as the basis for new Sound and Media sculptures, intertwined within documental approaches to different cultures. This project has become a long durational research that results not only in new artworks and sculpture installations but also a documentary archive and film that maps different regions of the world. Most recently I was granted an Artistic Residency in Vietnam where I developed research with the north minority villages, their cultural practices and materials of use, namely their ancient agricultural production of Rice. These ethnic minorities have unique folklore traditions and relation towards their exuberant landscape, sound was used not only as a way to directly examine organic materials but also as a vehicle for interpretation of a distant culture and language.

Departing from an expanded world of “sound and acoustic ecology”, the core for my research is the direct experience of Nature in remote geographies. This long durational project aims to study totally different examples of the relation between man and Landscape.

Through various media, techniques and discourses, I interrogate in each way the human perception of the “Natural” can be challenged, creating pieces that deal with unstable, ephemeral and organic specific cases. The clash between “man-made” and “biological structures” is a constant characteristic of my work, expanding connections between Sculpture, ecology, technology, anthropology, performance, land art, sound & media art.”

Gil Delindro’s work has been exhibited in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, with awards / support by institutions such as VARC (Visual Arts for Rural Communities, UK), ENCAC (European Network for Comtemporary Av Creation), EMARE (European Media Art), EDIGMA Semibreve (media art award, PT), Gulbenkian Foundation (PT), Berlin Senate for Kultur(DE), Goethe Institute(DE), STEIM foundation(NL), Francoise Meier Foundation (La Becque, CH), EOFA (Embassy of Foreign Artists, CH), Rivoli (Porto Municipal Theater, PT), DGartes (Portuguese Ministry for Culture, PT), among others.