Collaborative show will bring art to life during Rockford's ArtScene
A psychedelic experience without a drug.
That's how muralist Eddaviel Montero described SOMNIUM: The Book of Water Myths and Legends.
Montero and Emily Klonicki are the co-creators and directors of SOMNIUM, a multimedia public art show that combines the collaborative work of about 20 local artists across a variety of disciplines and mediums. The show integrates original music, storytelling, new media, light projection, modern dance and fire.
Klonicki described the 37-minute outdoor show as "a water mythology story."
"We're taking some very old visual arts music like hand drumming, paint on a wall, dance, very early kind of eternal human expressions of art and combining it with very new media like projection mapping, animation and video," Klonicki said.
The backdrop to the show is a large mural painted on the corner of the Cascade Industries building at 702 N. Madison St.
Through the use of creative lighting the mural at times appears to be alive and moving.
"So, you're going to have different things that light up and are dark at different times," Klonicki added. "You're going to have parts of the mural that move around. You're going to have the whole psychedelic effect out of the canvas of the mural."
Montero and Klonicki are the same creative duo who produced "SOMNIUM: The Book of Dreams and Nightmares," the 2022 recipient of the Rockford Area Arts Awards Innovation in the Arts award.
Other artists featured in "SOMNIUM: The Book of Water Myths and Legends" include writer Odilius Vlak, animation and projection by Jason Judd and Iga Puchalska, choreographers and dancers Meghan Baylor, Caitlyn Baylor, Ella Lakey, Gretchen Stark and Faith Minneyfield, flow artists Zach Stephens, Jenny Mathews and Zheka Fedoseev, videographers Alize Jireh and Camilo Marte, composer Raymond Jaquez, live music performer David Stocker, sculptural and costume artists Melinda Cook, Eamonn Talkington and Valentina Fedoseev, sound and technical producers Bill Houtkamp, Andrew Ehrhardt and Emmett McDermott, marketing and advertising by Hector Montero and students from the Rockford Area Arts Council SPARK! Build SOMNIUM Art Internship camp.
The show will be performed at 8 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday as part of Rockford's Fall ArtScene, and 8 p.m. Oct. 13 and 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at 702 N. Madison St.
Tickets purchased online at mentesextremofilas.com/somniumare are $22 each or $25 at the door.
ArtScene is a Rockford tradition dating back to 1987. Each spring and fall, businesses, venues and public spaces throughout Rockford host artists and their works for a community gallery walk. Various art forms are on display from painting and photography to new media and performance art.
Fall ArtScene is being held from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Somnium, a visual arts show in Rockford, combines old and new artwork
