Hacia Cuando: An Opera is a cross-geographical experimental opera-performance created in the mode of an exquisite corpse.

The work brings together the creative practices of Jenny Olivia Johnson, composer and sound artist based in Los Angeles; Javier Bustos, Argentinian experimental luthier and sound artist; and Chilean-American visual artist Daniela Rivera. Sharing authorship, the collaborators developed the piece through a process in which lyrics, sonic material, and conceptual propositions circulated among them. Working across distance, each artist responded to and transformed the others’ contributions, allowing the work to unfold dialogically rather than hierarchically.

The resulting audiovisual opera-performance aims to activate and complete the millenary and global tradition of fresco. Through live performance (voice, experimental instruments, moving image, and spatial intervention) the work treats fresco not as a fixed image, but as a living process, one that is temporally and materially completed through embodied activation.

There are two performances only in the gallery of Daniela Rivera: Hacia Cuando (To When). In addition, join the artists and contributors in the Research & Development Store at 2pm for a conversation about the exhibition and its translation into an opera. Learn more.

Daniela Rivera: Hacia Cuando (To When) has been supported by a grant from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Artist’s Resource Trust.