Once again, the MIRA Festival brings to Barcelona a program dedicated to digital arts across different disciplines. In the MIRA line-up, the names of Kim Gordon and Barcelona-born Marc Vilanova are at the same level, whose work ‘Cascade’ is one of several installations that can be enjoyed at the Fira site. In this case, a piece of illuminated strings that hypnotizes.
MIRA is another small/medium festival that offers a much-needed alternative to the macro-festival culture and massification; It is a showcase of new, interesting and avant-garde bets, in some cases very rare to see in Spain, which reveals the importance of betting on an affordable and accessible festival model that offers an intimate experience.
It is worth arriving early to the venue to discover MIRA’s different, non-strictly musical proposals. The immersive installation ALTAR by Oscar Zabala stands out, which covers in bubblegum pink plastic one of the spaces of this edition that will later host DJ sets, producing a dreamlike effect. In the background, a pipe of ambient music invites the public to relax hours before the electronic music takes over. In the middle, a screen imagines a portal to another dimension.
At around 8:30 p.m. the public is ready to receive Lorenzo Senni and his disruptive electronics, which he proposes on his album ‘Scacco Matto’ (2020). Senni’s music resolves its crescendos with continuous skids and slides, offering a balanced and unpredictable mix of melody and noise. More than deconstructed dance, it is destroyed dance in the best of senses. Although Senni’s visuals are not the best in this edition. Without visuals, Nadah El Shazly She is pure enigma pulling herself and her band, including a harpist. The artist mixes traditional Egyptian and electronic music in a continuous battle of passionate songs and futuristic and epic bases.
One of the main dishes on Friday is called Bicep: The British duo, with a 1 and a half hour slot, is the main attraction of the day before Craig Richards’ three-hour closing DJ set. Returning to Bicep, the Belfast duo formed by Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar (the latter, in his return to the stage after his summer operation) provide the house and techno dance – generic, to be frank – that the public needs in that moment, along with some amazing visuals and light effects. Although it would have been nice to see a Bicep live performance instead of a DJ set, with the duo the party doesn’t slow down.
The value of MIRA also lies in offering proposals that would otherwise be very difficult to see in Spain or even in Europe. It is a gift to be able to see The Body live raising their epic devastating doom metal ritual. At MIRA, The Body presents their album with Dis Fig, ‘Orchards of a Futile Heaven’, and delivers the gloomiest possible alternative to the electronica-flooded dance floors of the rest of the event. In particular, it is impossible to look away from a Dis Fig who, on stage, becomes a shaman of terror.
Late at night, on one side the haven of peace of Airwhich takes MIRA on a journey of vaporous and ethereal settings, allows you to take a break before the techno intensity that lies ahead. And, on the other, the mythical µ-Ziq He drives the audience crazy throwing out his portfolio of infallible breakbeats. Today, Saturday, MIRA continues with performances by Kim Gordon and AG Cook.
