Colección SOLO, a private art collection and international art patronage project based in Madrid (Spain), has announced the winners of its international sound art award, the PowSOLO Awards. The prizes aim to acknowledge the best international works in this artistic field, promoting and supporting the creation and research of sound art. The PowSOLO Award, a collaboration between Colección SOLO and Powland Network, an Amsterdam-based collective dedicated to promoting sound art, celebrates its inaugural edition this year, with composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s presence in the jury.
The Best Sound Art award winner, selected from 116 entries to an international open call, is Spanish artist Enrique de Castillo. His work, Phonoptic Readers, creates a constant stream of musical compositions by reading patterns designed on cinematographic film. Del Castillo’s win comprises EUR 10,000 of prize money and the opportunity to see his work exhibited at Espacio SOLO, the museum in Madrid which houses Colección SOLO.
The PowSOLO Awards jury also conferred three runner-up awards, Discovery of the Year, Invention of the Year, and Viral of the Year, each worth EUR 1,000 in prize money as well as a further Special Mention. Prizes were also awarded to Menagerie by Nolan Lem (USA), which features a swarm of triggers and reflects on gun violence; Fluid Memory. Fluidic Computer by Ioana Bremer Moser (Romania/Germany); Bing Bang 850 by Etienne Krähenbühl (Switzerland); and Auspicio, a work by Italian artists Enrico Ascoli and Hilaro Asola, which creates soundscapes from real-time wine fermentation.
Experience sound art pieces by all PowSOLO Awards 2020 winners here.
Best Sound Art: Phonoptic Readers
The top prize of EUR 10,000 for Best Sound Art has been awarded to the Spanish artist Enrique del Castillo for his 2020 work Phonoptic Readers. It is constructed with two hand-made optical readers that simultaneously run to play two rolls of 35 mm film printed with a variety of geometrical patterns. The piece translates light into sound, producing an ever-changing stream of compositions.
Phonoptic Readers was chosen by the jury for “the artistic worth and sound aesthetics of a piece that mechanically transforms visual representations into constantly changing sound creations”.
Artist and musician Enrique del Castillo studied Fine Arts at the University of Granada, Spain. He has exhibited in several galleries, sound art and experimental musical festivals, including CCCB Barcelona (Spain), Loophole Berlin (Germany) and the LPM Festival in Rome (Italy).
Discovery of the Year: Menagerie
The best work discovered over the course of the past year by the sound art platform powland.tv has been awarded to Menagerie, a work by Stanford-based artist, Nolan Lem. This installation comprises a giant swarm of automatic gun triggers. The repetitive noise of the triggers going off creates a unique soundscape, inviting reflection on the continued incidence of gun violence.
Invention of the Year: Fluid Memory. Fluidic Computer
In the Invention of the Year category, the jury selected Fluid Memory. Fluidic Computer, a sound installation by the Berlin-based Romanian artist, Ioana Vreme Moser. This piece features a computer developed with glass, water and salt, capable of retaining 1 bit of information in each cycle and producing different sound patterns. In addition to its sound art aspect, this piece also serves as an investigative model for sustainable computing solutions using water.
Viral of the Year: Bing Bang 850
The third runner-up prize at the PowSOLO Awards is for the most viral work shown on powland.tv. Bing Bang 850 is the most-viewed work by followers on the collective’s Instagram account. A kinetic sculpture by the Swiss artist, Étienne Krähenbüh, Bing Bang 850 is made up of numerous metal tubes linked to form a sphere. Like a giant chime, the piece generates sound as the tubes collide.
Special Mention: Auspicio
The PowSOLO Awards jury also decided to award a special mention to the sound installation, Auspicio. Created by the Italian artists Enrico Ascoli and Hilaro Asola, the piece produces a soundscape of birdsong using the gases released during wine fermentation.
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