Franc Aleu

(1966) is a visual artist resident in Girona, Spain specialized in video for opera-theatre and special events. He is the director of URANO, production company in Barcelona and a frequent colaborator of the theater group La Fura dels Baus.

Franc Aleu initially worked as a photographer for such major fashion houses as Mango, Custo Line, Diesel, Selvatgi and Lydia Delgado and his works appeared in magazines including Elle, Magazine and La Vanguardia. Together with Jaume Plensa, he created the video curtain for La Fura dels Baus' production of Atlàntida. Along with Manuel Huerga, Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, he worked on a production of The Martyrdom of St Sebastian. Other career highlights include the design of BTV’s website, the video effects for Faust 3.0, staged together with Emmanuel Carlier, a production of La Damnation de Faust for La Fura dels Bau and the cinematic scenario and direction of Un'anima chiamata Puccini.

Franc Aleu created and directed the series Bubbles, broadcast on TVE and Bausan Films; he is also the artistic consultant of the director of the interactive television channel Gum_tv and the internet portal Terra. Together with Roland Olbeter, he worked on a stage version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was staged at the grand opening of the amphitheatre in Cagliari. He has also worked on the video graphics for La Fura dels Baus' of XXX, Un día en el Fórum and Die Zauberflöte, which was shown at the Ruhr Triennale (Germany).

Other works by the artist include Kafka's Metamorphosis; directing and creating the audio-visual design of the sets for DQ, Pasajero en Tránsito; the audio-visual designs for the production Sonetos del amor oscuro. Cripta sonora para Luigi Nono; an architectural drawing of the exhibition building for Expo Saragossa 2008; and the full-length road movie Spagh!

Source: Mariinsky Theatre

Franc Aleu, choreography, multi projection

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The Art of Projectionism (2007) by Frederick Baker (in German) sets out the principles behind his use of projectors in the film making process. He defines a projectionist school of filmmaking and media art. In this publication he also presented Ambient film, a surround experience that can be shown in specially developed cinemas. (Wikipedia)

Notations 21 (2009) by Theresa Sauer features illustrated musical scores from more than 100 international composers, all of whom are making amazing breakthroughs in the art of notation. Notations 21 is a celebration of innovations in musical notation, employing an appreciative aesthetic for both the aural and visual beauty of these creations. The musical scores in this edition were created by composers whose creativity could not be confined by the staff and clef of traditional western notation, but whose musical language can communicate with the contemporary audience in a uniquely powerful way. (Notations 21 Project)

Notation. Calculation and Form in the Arts (2008) is a comprehensive catalogue (in German) edited by Dieter Appelt, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. (ZKM)

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La Fura dels Baus is a Catalan theatrical group founded in 1979 in Barcelona known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries separating audience and actor. La Fura dels Baus is a company in a permanent process of transformation that, since it was founded in 1979, has approached new challenges in the field of the performing arts. Its occasional shows and events have had an enormous impact on both international critics and audiences. It would be no exaggeration to say that since Actions (1983) La Fura dels Baus can be considered as a cult group for its thousands of followers all over the world. La Fura has developed its own language, style and aesthetics over the years based on collective creation. (Wikipedia)

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre (2007) - The idea behind this unusual Ring production comes from Spain's La Fura dels Baus, the ensemble from Barcelona that has wowed audiences in most European capitals with its spectacular performances. La Fura director Carlus Padrissa sees the Ring in terms of Greek tragedy in which the gods descending onto the stage in machines is synonymous with a hopeless situation in which Richard Wagner's gods find themselves. (Opera News)

Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung (2009) staged by theatrical group La Fura del Baus. Götterdämmerung forms the forth and final part in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle. The impressive surroundings of Valencia's Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia provide a suitable backdrop, as this version of Wagner's piece unfolds. (Amazon)

Richard Wagner: Siegfried (2008) - In the world of opera, La Fura dels Baus has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Der Ring des Nibelungen production). Indeed, La Fura dels Baus was predestined for Richard Wagner's visionary world: his dream of a Gesamtkunstwerk becomes reality as a shape-shifting sequence of tableaux unfolds before our eyes with all the elements that constitute the lenguaje furero or Fura idiom. (Unitel Classica)

Monolake: Infinite Snow Edit II (2010) is an ongoing research project which is about the exploration of audiovisual surround possibilities in a club context. Within this project, Robert Henke (Monolake) does the surround audio part while Tarik Barri works with multiscreen video projections. (Tarik Barri)

Simple Harmonic Motion study #5d (2011) by Mehmet Akten is an ongoing research and series of projects exploring the nature of complex patterns created from the interaction of multilayered rhythms. This version was designed for and shown at Ron Arads Curtain Call at the Roundhouse. This ultra wide video is mapped around the 18m wide, 8m tall cylindrical display made from 5,600 silicon rods, allowing the audience to view from inside and outside. (Mehmet Akten)

Audio.Visual - On Visual Music and Related Media (2009) by Cornelia Lund and Holger Lund (Eds.) is divided into two sections: the first deals with the academic discussion on the subject of visual music; the second introduces contemporary paradigms of audio-visual praxis in brief presentations and contextualises them. Apart from being a guide in the historical sense, this new volume provides theoretical approaches to understanding and making visual music. (Fluctuating Images)

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward (2010) – The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video by Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future. (transcript Verlag)

Daniel Franke (*1982) works as an artist, designer and music video director in Berlin. His works challenge the restrictions of conventional spatial frameworks and -concepts: digital simulations should no longer be limited to an on-screen-display; instead the digital might be imagined as transferable into real space and thus extend perceptions of the real. Ultimately digital spaces should leave the realm of the virtual and enter the tactile. (Daniel Franke)

Visual Music Archive

Franc Aleu

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