tekhnē

During their residency, Vica Pacheco and Loto Retina will work on their performance for Oscillation ::: from the Mothership, a duo composition for two large-scale hydraulic sculptures arranged in a mirrored configuration. They will compose the score for the performance, which functions as a set of instructions and temporal structures rather than a fixed musical notation, allowing the sculptures’ hydraulic systems to remain responsive and variable.

Each performer operates one sculpture. Sound is produced through systems comparable to pre-Columbian whistling vessels—technologies whose original uses remain uncertain. This indeterminacy is central to Vica Pacheco’s work, enabling a speculative and empathetic approach to sonic technology. The performance fabulates possible uses of these hydraulic principles, extending them into an acoustic composition. Sound emerges from the interaction of water, air, pressure, gravity, and time, without amplification or digital mediation. Variations such as staccato articulations, changes in pitch, and rhythmic interruptions arise through continuous modulation of internal flow and balance. Although each sculpture responds differently, both remain attuned to one another, forming a mirrored yet non-identical dialogue.

The performance unfolds through an energetic dialogue where contrast becomes a compositional force and collaboration emerges through mutual adjustment. Over the course of the performance, the duet gradually converges into a single shared system.

Vica Pacheco is a Brussels-based artist. Her multidisciplinary practice spans experimental music composition, ceramics, and 3D animation. Her work, often described as eclectic and energetic, explores mythological crossbreeding and interactions between human and non-human. She employs a syncretic approach, blending archaic, and contemporary technologies with heterogeneous elements to create immersive sound performances and installations.

Self-described as “gnom ’n’ bass,” it is not so far-fetched to imagine Loto Retina as some fantastical creature who just happened to wander into this mortal realm, and their songs don’t do a lot to refute this possibility. Their high-fructose music combines micro-sample chaos and gloopy bass with unpredictable percussion to create a congregation of organic and mechanical sounds. While there is a digitality to Loto Retina’s sound, sometimes resembling a pleasantly malfunctioning robot, it also holds an animistic and feral quality: this is music that growls as much as it grooves.