Sonic Performativity

Paula Montecinos Oliva

Transdisciplinary artist and researcher from Chile currently based in Amsterdam.

Paula Montecinos Oliva (CL) is an Amsterdam-based sound artist, performance maker and researcher. With an embodied, decolonial and techno-feminist approach, her practice questions the materiality of sound, listening and movement, through DIY analog synthesis, vocals and the research of frequency phenomena and somatics.

“ Grounding my research in the affordances of choreography, sound art and somatics, my artistic practice embraces the physical and spatial dynamics of sonic experience, unfolding the performativity of sounds along the crafting of analog electronics, experimental vocals and written matter. My practice navigates hybrid formats of sonic choreographies, radiophonic concerts, soundworks and installations, linking listening to words, bodies and vibrations, as tools relationality, perceptual re-organization and collective transformation.

My work has been presented internationally in festivals and spaces including: transmediale, (Berlin), IDlab (Amsterdam), CBK (Amsterdam), Blob Together (Vienna), HKW (Berlin), Q-02 (Brussels), Sonic Matter Festival (Zurich), Sonic Acts - Night Air (Amsterdam), ICK (Amsterdam), Festival Asmtria, (Perú), Cometogether#4 (Amsterdam) Juli Dans - (Amsterdam) Danzalborde Festival (Valparaíso), Spain Cultural Center, Parque Metropolitano, (Santiago de Chile), Spektrum, (Berlin), among others.

I’m currently a fellow at DAS THIRD and BAK felowwship for situated practice, developing a research on (an)archival sonic practices, as counter-narrative to hegemonic and monotonic worldviews and epistemologies. I also teach somatic movement laboratories in latinx migrational contexts, approaching the transformative potential of touch and lsitening of the body to enact social change. “


For public engagements, collaborations, and commissions, please get in touch info@paulamonte.cl

Recent and upcoming


2023

— November: Residency and public opening at IDlab - Poetic laboratory for digital technologies. Limited spots!

— August ~ September: Residency program at TRANSMEDIALE with the project SONIC FABULATIVE FEMINISM.

— August: UNBOUND at SUBURBIA Garage Noord, Amsterdam.

— July: Somatic Laboratory Trans*latinx Memories. ATD Amsterdam.

— June: Sound dramaturgy and sound installation FOAMS with Mario Lopes at ECD 3, ATD Amsterdam.

— May: Residency IDLab. Project UNBOUND sonic-spatial performance

— February: Sound performance AFROTRANSTOPIA, by Mario Lopes at Come Together#9, Frascati Theater.

—January: Lauching of the Fanzine Acuerpadxs. Part of the project Somatic Lab. Trans*latinx Memories


2022

—December: Residency UNBOUND at WpZimmer. Antwerp

—December: Premiere DAS GIFT. Directed by Juan Miranda. Shauspiel – Staatstheater Hannover.

—November: Sonic intervention RED FOREST RADIOGRAM. In the frame of NOMADIC COSMOLOGIES AND FUGITIVE POWER.

—November: Forthcoming (Not Yet Here But Always Been There). A sonic collaboration with Devika Chotoe and Anne Jesuina. In responds to Patricia Kaersenhout’s exhibition in CBK.

—November: UNBOUND sonic performance at The Artist are Present Festival. ICK Dans Amsterdam

— September: THUNDER AND LIGHTING. A Conversation with Images and Sounds. Paula Montecinos Oliva & Eduardo Molinari . Contribution to The Whole Life Repository HKW, Berlin.

—July: UNBOUND sonic performance at Blob Together @Club PRTS. Vienna.

—June: Workshop (Un)bound Sounds. #FERALIZING New Alphabet School. Warsaw

—May: Sonic reading of Champurrias. For South Boom Boom magazine. Especial edition in Performance Philosophy Journal.

—May: ‘Kuir Sudaka Migrant Landscapes’ Talk and video featuring IPOP by DAS Research and ATD Amsterdam

—April: Residency In Transit: Ihlas _ a Constellation. Walking, Landscape and Natural Reserve. Madeira PL. Curated by Sara Anjo.

—March. Revolvə Site-specific sonic performance at The Whole Life Congress. Archives and Imaginaries. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Curated by Megan Hoetger.

—March: N/pantla with Devika Chotoe and Pedro Matias at Frascati Theater. Dolce Revoel SNDO graduation.

—March: Q-02 Residency. Workspace for experimental music and sound art. Brussels, Belgium.

—February: Residency Het Huis Utrecht. Netherlands. N/pantla by Paula Montecinos, Pedro Matias and Devika Chotoe.


2021

—November: Radio Silence Host– ICA London and DAS Graduate School, Amsterdam –  How to think Symposium.

—November: N/pantla by Paula Montecinos and Pedro Matias at Sonic Acts venue, Night Air: Shock Waves, in OT301. Amsterdam.

—August: N/pantla by Paula Montecinos and Pedro Matias at Laurel Space Project.

—July: Silent Waves @ Various public spaces, Amsterdam. Public dance performance. Funding by Fonds Podiumkunsten.

—July: Walks of Arts Against Isolation, @ Various public spaces, Amsterdam Performed a 1-1 proposal in public space in Amsterdam. Funding by Fonds Podiumkunsten.


2020

IN THE DROP Sonic choreography. MA Graduation project, presented at DAS Graduate School. Amsterdam. Netherlands

STAMIRA[2026] Choreography and sound performance, 2020. Collaboration with Karina Villafán. Premiere at Julidans Festival, Brakke Grond Flemish Cultural Center. Amsterdam. Netherlands.

— June: Workshop. ON READING AND TRANSDUCING. Organized by GHOST Study Group No. 6 and Tender Center, Rotterdam.

— May: LAS CUATRO ORILLAS soundwork, Festival Asimtria 16. PUMPUMYACHKAN Audiovisual and Sound Festival. Cusco, Perú.

— March: ARCHIPIELAGO Sonic choreography. Perform at Festival Come Together#5. Frascati Theater. Amsterdam, Netherlands.

LISTENING THROUGH THE NOISE Live broadcast concert. Symposium Music Pours Over the Senses. Music department, University of Graz. Austria.

— ELEMENTARY CHARGE, Directed by visual artist Mette Sterre and presented at 20th year anniversary of TENT Rotterdam.