Elastic Aural
Mexico City-Chicago Improvised Music Interchange. An International Connections project between Improvisers in Chicago and Mexico City.
Elastic Aural is an international collaborative project bringing together the robust improvised music communities of Chicago and Mexico City. The project was conceived to bring eight improvising musicians from Chicago to Mexico City to work and perform with eight improvisers based there, then to bring those musicians to Chicago to continue the collaboration six months later. The first phase - the Chicagoans' trip to Mexico City - was completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world: March 12-16, 2020. A series of meetings, rehearsals, and performances took place at the Centro Cultural de España de Mexico and at Casa Niza in Mexico City over the course of four days and evenings.
Those performances were documented in a film by Mexican filmmakers Rhizomes Films. The film, entitled Elastic Arts: An Improvised Music Exchange Between Mexico City and Chicago, March 13-15, 2020 was released and virtually screened in July 2020 along with new virtual solo performances by four of the participants.
Since the second phase of the project - bringing the Mexican musicians to Chicago - was delayed due to the pandemic, in March 2021 (the anniversary of the first trip, and of the pandemic) the participants began an interim project using technology and new techniques to work together across distance. Artists submitted sound recordings and video that they had created by working virtually with their international counterparts through processes of layering, collaborative conceptualization, and mutual inspiration. Those pieces were then woven together into a new film by Rhizomes Films entitled Respiro: A Multimedia Exchange While We Wait.
The final phase of the project - bringing the Mexican musicians to Chicago - is currently scheduled for April 2023.
The project is organized by Elastic Arts in partnership with Festival Aural, the No Idea Festival, Harmonipan, and Rhizomes Films. The project is supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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