animAMusicae

It was born with the aim of exploring the different connections existing among diverse creative processes and with the conviction that music was an ideal space of dialogue and mutual enrichment. After some years designing projects that merged Gonzalo’s music with diverse visual arts (painting, sculpture, graving, video or photography) in 2002 animAMusicae began to explore the blend of Gonzalo’s music with Pilar’s intimate world of oniric and delicate images and words. The complicity and symbiosis between them and the public and critic’s acclaim were such that, since then, they decided to focus their creativity on concerts and exhibitions combining both.

animAMusicae have offered concerts and exhibitions all around Spain and Europe and their work is already part of important public and private art collections. Their activity tragically stopped in 2010 due to a terrible car crash and they are currently working on their return, so… stay tuned!

Short CV

Among the many different animAMusicae’s concerts, exhibitions and events we can highlight the following:

-2001, closing concert of the 1st European Meetings with Young Art, organized by theSpanish Ministry of Culture and the Government of Aragón.

-2002, triple concert at Zaragoza’s Auditorium. The expectation generated by the animAMusicae’s performance was such that the prestigious art journal RevistArt devoted an article to it in its “Must see” section.

-2002, animAMusicae was commissioned by the European University Institute (European Commission) to offer a concert in Florence, Italy, celebrating Europe’s Day, the end of the Spanish Presidency of the EU and the 25th anniversary of the European University Institute.

-2003, Concert at CAI’s Auditorium in Zaragoza with great critic and public success and media coverage; among other media, Gonzalo and Pilar were interviewed in the famous Onda Cero’s radio program “Protagonistas”.

-2004, Pilar is one of the invited artists to the International Festival of the Contemporary Image –ManifestO- in Toulouse, France, where her work received extraordinary critics. animAMusicae is commissioned too by the University of Zaragoza to offer a concert celebrating the opening of the University of Zaragoza Summer Courses and their anniversary.

-2005, due to the great success obtained in ManifestO, animAMusicae was commissioned by the MJC Roguet of Toulouse (Fédération Midi-Pyrénées des Maisons des Jeunes et de la Culture, Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports) to open its 2005 concert and exhibition season. The Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza and The Fernando el Católico Institution organised a retrospective exhibition of Pilar Irala’s and animAMusicae’s works.

-2006, animAMusicae presented their work in the Contemporary Art Gallery Espacio Kubiko, Madrid, their official Gallery of Art until 2010.

-2007, apart from being commissioned by the financial institution Ibercaja to offer a series of concerts and exhibitions in different Spanish cities, the group was invited to Artery07, International Fair of Contemporary Young Art, where they obtained great critic and public success and one of the awards of the Jury. The year closed with the important commission by the famous Spanish soccer team Real Zaragoza, to compose the OST of the Exhibition celebrating Real Zaragoza’s 75th anniversary (a composition for violin and electric violin entitled “12 yards/11 metros”) and to create a photographic work of art celebrating soccer (a mosaic of 6 photographs entitled “Eres…siempre…”) animAmusicae opened the exhibition with a concert and “Eres…siempre…” was chosen by Real Zaragoza as the official image of its 75th anniversary.

-2008, animAMusicae were invited to the 1st International Exhibition on Dali’s Dolmen at the Museum of The Royal Spanish Mint, Madrid. Only 100 artists all around the world were invited to this international event. During the summer, animAMusicae presented their last photographic series in the Spanish/Japanese Gallery of Contemporary Art Calvo i Mayayo as part of the cultural activities parallel to the Expo2008, International Exposition in which animAMusicae also participated with the video “One possible end”/”Un final”. The year closed with the invitations to the VIII International Contemporary Art Festival “Madrid Tentación” (Madrid, 21-26 October) and to the “Juvenalia” Fair (IFEMA, Madrid, 19-28 December).

-2008-2009, animAMusicae is one of the artists participating in the project and exhibition “50×50”, whose aim is to collect funds for UNICEF.

-2009 promised big events. January 28th animAMusicae presented their work in Córdoba at Soliman Company and in March Gonzalo and Pilar were invited to the Festival Equiart. In April they were selected to participate in the International Contemporary Art Festivals BeArt and Arteria09, where they won the second prize (the Jury was chaired by the world renowned artist Angel Orensanz). Meanwhile, their work was presented in Italy and, during the month of June and paralelly to PHE09, they exhibited their new photographic work, “Angel’s mornings”, at Galería Espacio KUBIKO (Madrid) animAMusicae continued working on their next exhibitions and concerts, especially in Perpignan, where they were invited to the worldwide known VISA OFF Festival. Their soirée took place September 9th.

In November animAMusicae was in Berlin in an international exhibition commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall (the opening took place November 9th).

-2010 opened with the participation of animAMusicae in a collective exhibition at the Madrid Museum of Contemporary Art; animAMusicae’s work “Esto era la soledad” became then part of the permanent collection of this internationally renown public museum. In January animAMusicae were at the Furniture International Exhibition (Zaragoza), at the International Contemporary Art Exhibition “Castellón en Arte” and at the International Contemporary Art Fair Arteria’10. animAMusicae also exhibited in Laponia that year.

– 2016 The Upside Down exhibition at Gil Marraco space (Real Sociedad Fotográfica de Zaragoza)

– 2017 Ojos de Mujer exhibition at José Sinués Library (Obra Social de Ibercaja) & Center for Research on Water

– 2018 Ojos de Mujer exhibition (FUNDAZ commision), Joaquin Roncal Center

– 2019 «Cierta Luz. De fotógrafas aragonesas» [A kind of light. On Aragonese Women Photographers]. Other exhibitions were:

La Lonja (Zaragoza). Council of Zaragoza.
Sala Spectrum Sotos (September)
Espacio en Blanco (November)

– 2022: Photographic installation in the gallery «Aparador(22)» in Gerona.

Collective exhibition on the centenary of the Royal Photographic Society of Zaragoza, with the collaboration of Zaragoza Council, Aragonesse Goverment and Caja Rural de Aragón, at Gran Vía (street exhibition)
Collective exhibition with the photographic group «Ojos de Mujer», at Asociación de Artistas Plásticos Aragón-Goya art gallery.

– 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022: we took part of the solidarity project and exhibition «Postales desde el Limbo».

Works of animAMusicae in public and private collections of art (highlights):

Public collections:

-Madrid Museum of Contemporary Art
-MJC Roguet, Toulouse (Ministère de la Jeunesse et desSports, France)
-Centro de Estudios Comarcales del Bajo Aragón, Caspe (Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico, España)
-Ayuntamiento de Monzón