Jonathan Uliel Saldanha

# Contamination, Contagion, El-dorado, Vocoder, Neo-Orpheus, Oracle Machine, Mineral Blood, Prosthetic Vampire, Bacteriological Lake, Red Death Mask, Necromancer, Sub-sonic, Surface, Landscape # An oracular monodrama based on a mineral-organic testimony. Mercúrio Vermelho [Red Mercury] is an acoustic and visual journey following the delirium of the extraction of precious metals through the testimony of one of its most elusive icons, red mercury. This monologue is meant for a synthetic voice and is performed by a vampire—he who sucks the blood of the Earth—at a threshold where both contaminate one another, evoking their crossed paths as well as the many stories, myths and conspiracy theories surrounding them. Shot in Kampala, Uganda, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Mercúrio Vermelho is screened as a synthetic landscape through which the visitor has to walk. — Jonathan Saldanha

JONATHAN ULIEL SALDANHA is a musician, visual artist, and sound and set designer. He is an associate artist at Teatro Municipal do Porto, researching areas that intersect pre-language, otherness, science fiction, sound as a contagion vector, and the tension between synthetic and landscape. In 2019, he premiered his voice piece and sculpture Scotoma Cintilante / Dysmorphia (Catholic University of Porto, BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts, Teatro Nacional São Carlos, Lisbon), the electronics percussion piece Broken Field Atlantis (FITEI – International Theatre Festival of Iberian Expression, Rivoli), and the exhibitions Plague Vector (Braga Municipal Gallery), Locus Amoenus, Locus Horribilis (Solar Gallery) and Behemoth Republic (Arquipélago – Contemporary Art Centre, in the scope of Sonic Geometry). Between 2016 and 2018, he presented the installation Vocoder & Camouflage, the piece O Poço [The Pit], the installation Oxidation Machine, the exhibition Afasia Tática [Tactical Aphasia] and the piece/film Søma at Festival DDD, Verão Azul – International Arts Festival, Do Disturb Festival (Palais de Tokyo), Anozero: Coimbra Biennale, Culturgest and Cordoaria Nacional (Lisbon). In 2012, he co-curated the programme “SONORES – sound/space/signal” for the Guimarães European Capital of Culture. Since 2009, he co-created the scenic pieces Nyarlathotep and Jungle Machine, which were presented at Accès(s) Festival, balleteatro and Serralves Museum. He also composed a series of pieces that include voice, electronics and resonating space: Khoros Anima, Sancta Viscera Tua, Del, Silvo Umbra and Plethora. He has since worked with artist Catarina Miranda in her pieces. He performed in concerts at festivals such as Unsound, Le Guess Who?, Sónar, Primavera Sound, Amplifest, Out.Fest, Milhões de Festa, Neopop and Elevate. He runs the project HHY & The Macumbas, and he founded the collective SOOPA, a music label and concerts/performances producer from Porto, in 1999. The Serralves Museum published his film/essay Mundo de Cristal, Máquina da Selva [Crystal World, Jungle Machine].