The light and music staging of Vuza's rhythmic canons is at the heart of a fascinating piece for percussion, performed by the musicians of the French ensemble 0 and the Porto based Drumming - Grupo de Percussão.

Serralves joins forces with La Soufflerie (Rezé, France) for the creation of a piece co-signed by French composer Sébastien Roux and the Portuguese artist Catarina Miranda. Vuza Canons owes its name to a rhythmic canon system studied by the Romanian mathematician Dan Tudor Vuza. These canons consist in rare and incredibly complex forms, said to be ‘perfect’ in the way they can generate the absence of empty spaces and superimposition. Besides being virtually impossible to recreate with analogue means, they engender paradoxical perceptual experience, particularly within the relations between polyphony and monody.

The piece follows on Roux’s previous works with these mathematical structures, sitting within his broader studies of the perception of forms through works at the frontiers of music and sound art. He now ventures on approaching such abstract structures gathering a group of virtuoso percussionists, playing stone and metal instruments built for this purpose.

From the outset, the piece was conceived as a synesthetic and scenic experience, resorting, namely, to the use of light and color. Catarina Miranda, whose dance and scenography research has focused on relations between hypnagogic states and fiction, is the artist invited to create the visual dimension of Vuza Canons.

Artistic Direction: Sébastien Roux, Catarina Miranda

Music Composition: Sébastien Roux

Performers / ensemble 0: Stéphane Garin, Jeanne Larrouturou / Drumming GP: Miquel Bernat, Rui Rodrigues

Instruments Construction: Alexandre Maillet, Stéphane Garin, Sébastien Roux

Sound and Music Assistant: Jérôme Tuncer

Light Design/ Scenography: Catarina Miranda

Light technical assistance: Renato Marinho / Francisco Campos

Light Reggie: Francisco Campos

Production: ensemble 0

Co-production: Fundação de Serralves, La Soufflerie, The Windmill, Set 0, DRAC New Aquitaine, Drumming GP;

Support: New Aquitaine National Stage

Photos: Alexandre Maillet