IVAN ABREU

( Cuba | Mexico – México )

IVAN ABREU - as an artist and programmer, Abreu investigates art forms generated with algorithmic processes and inserted into everyday digital life.

His work takes multiple forms, such as installations, graphics, sound art, interactive digital media and audiovisual concerts.

Abreu is interested in proposing to the observer and listener new ways of relating to visuality, sound and space; Abreu believes in the capacity for wonder as a way to highlight and revitalize the conversation about social issues or about art itself.

His work can be found in public collections such as FEMSA Foundation, CINTAS Foundation, Patronage of the Historic Centre (Mexico), Televisa Art Foundation, MUAC (Mexico City), and Extremadura and Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art.

He has received awards, distinctions and residencies: The Lumen Prize, 2023 Gold Award Winner, ZKM Residence – Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2021), The Prix Ars Electronica (Honorary Mention 2012, Linz, Austria); The CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts, (2011-12, Miami, US). The National System of Art Creators of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (Mexico, 2012-2014, 2017-2019 and 2022-2025). He was also director of the 1st International Festival of Electronic Arts Transito MX.

His work has been shown in exhibitions and spaces such as Impact and Legacy: 50 years of the CINTAS Foundation. Big Bang Data, Fundación Telefónica España. TEA: superconnected, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Bienal Monterrey FEMSA, Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey and Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso. Bienal Portugal Arte 10 EDP, Serendipity. Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center For The Visual Art. In/posición dinámica, Ars Electronica, Alameda Art Laboratory and Cultural Center of Spain. The Impolitics, PAN Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Italy; among others..

12-1S  SCARS  - Ivan Abreu    1ª SESSÃO | 1st SESSION

IMAGE PLAY ► International Video Art Festival - VII Edition 2025 (Funchal, Madeira - Portugal)

CREDITS:

Ivan Abreu  Director / Creator

Ivan Abreu  Writer / Concept

Ivan Abreu  Musical composition

Iván Abreu Studio  Production

Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD)  Assistance and mastering

SYNOPSIS:

Scars is a procedural audiovisual work that sonifies the cinematic image, turning it into a sound instrument. Through audio sequencing and synthesis generated by graphic traces drawn over video, the piece explores the relationship between the luminous map of the image and sound: the brightness of each point traced transforms the image into a score. In this dialogue between visuality and algorithmic sonority, the work visually scars the surface of the image, turning cinema into acoustic matter.