Daniel De Paula, circulação

Video Sound Art, on the occasion of the 12th edition of the Festival, started a collaboration with the artist Daniel De Paula for the new production of the sculptural elements and the soundtrack that formed part of the complex installation, together with the video work circulação.
Displayed on a decomposable LED screen, circulação, from 2019 still in progress, presents a collection of footage given to the artist by companies carrying out inspections for multinationals active in natural resource extraction and telecommunications. The neutrality of the content is only apparent: the images show the relentless commodification of the landscape.
The sculptural works are made out of recycled materials from different environments: electric cables, antenna components, fulgurites (fossils originating from lightning). For the sound intervention, the artist also uses existing material or material obtained through the practice of negotiation: sound fragments from the autotune software and sounds from companies that collect data for the oil extraction industry.
Autotune is software used in pop music to correct pitch, an example being the song Believe by Cher. It was invented by Andy Hildebrand, a scientist who, at the time, worked for ExxonMobil, collecting seismic data in order to locate oil deposits underground. To obtain data on the location of new deposits, the oil industry transmits sonic waves that bounce back to their origin. The data gathered is analyzed in an attempt to determine the composition of the ground.
It is from these assumptions that Andy Hildebrand – amateur flutist – creates autotune. Daniel De Paula’s new work, through negotiation and observation, shows a system of control in which the production and exchange of goods are at the center, even of the software used to create pop songs.

Daniel de Paula’s work aims to reflect on power dynamics within political, social, economic and historical structures that inevitably shape places, objects and relationships.
Through strategies such as the negotiation, the displacement of everyday objects and the appropriation of public infrastructure, his installations attempt to disarticulate, reconstruct and resignify rigid and conditioned spatial and conceptual systems and configurations.

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Born in 1987, Daniel de Paula is a Brazilian artist and researcher that lives and works between Amsterdam and São Paulo. He has exhibited widely including institutions such as: Bienal de São Paulo; The Arts Club of Chicago; Kunsthal Gent; MASP, São Paulo; PAC, Milan; ROZENSTRAAT, Amsterdam; Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo; and MAC, São Paulo. He was also an artist-in-residence at the Jan van Eyck Academie, FLACC, and KIOSKO. His work is represented by the following galleries: Francesca Minini; Jaqueline Martins; and Lumen Travo, and has been reviewed by Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, Metropolis M, and other specialized media. This year he is participating in the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art. He is represented in Italy by Francesca Minini Gallery in Milan.