International Forum on Artistic Research
17th Conference of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
Submission Number: 263
Submission ID: 325
Submission UUID: 04068929-d9d4-4ec0-a01b-6d3a73e07020

Created: Sat, 28 Feb 2026 - 20:50
Completed: Sun, 1 Mar 2026 - 17:15
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:29

Remote IP address: 81.47.21.191
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Current page: webform_confirmation

Flagged: Yes
Given name Breogán
Surname Torres Gutiérrez
Email breogantogu@gmail.com
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Title CANTO - onda - ONDA - canto
Format Performance
Main language Galician
Abstract In Galician orally transmitted music, sung pieces are structured as a sequence of verses (coplas) that do not necessarily share a thematic connection. What binds them is the place of their emergence—the social and emotional life of a specific village. Between verses, abstract vocal refrains appear—variations of “aialalalá” or “aialelo aialalelo.” These non-lexical sounds make fragmentation operative: rather than memorizing a three-minute song, singers learn clusters of short, self-contained chants lasting only a few seconds.

Such refrains are part of the sonic fabric of the Galician language. They carry no semantic meaning beyond their own resonance and cannot be translated. Yet they remain unmistakably Galician. How does this identification between community and sound arise? And how might these marginal, non-semantic forms generate resistance within a minoritized language in friction with the dominant Spanish?

This performance centers on these abstract refrains—“ailalaes”—extracted from archival field recordings. I separate them from the narrative body of the verses, focusing solely on their sonic presence. The material is processed through Pure Data, which reorganizes the chants into irregular, generative patterns. Their timing and recurrence are partially automated, producing a shifting structure that I cannot fully predict.

Within this system, my role is to listen and respond. I echo the recorded voices, aligning my breath and rhythm with theirs. Percussive gestures on the tambourine punctuate the intervals, recalling traditional transitions while recontextualizing them in a contemporary frame. Over 10–20 minutes, the piece unfolds as a layered dialogue between archival recordings and live voice, past and present. The work foregrounds repetition as a method of learning and embodiment, staging transmission not as preservation of fixed meaning but as the ongoing reactivation of sound within a living, vulnerable language.
Image _DSF0558.jpg
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Breogán Torres (Vigo, 1999), who signs his artistic work as Breogán Xague, is a visual artist, musician and poet based in between Sweden and Galiza. His work explores the processes by which a community identifies itself as such as well as the elements and techniques it uses, with emphasis on moments of transformation and fragility. In Stockholm he has shown his work in two solo exhibitions, one at the Galleri Mejan and the other at the Galleri ID:I, and in several group exhibitions, at Mint ABF or Konstakademien among others. He also had the opportunity to participate in several exhibitions in Galiza, Portugal and Spain, including some at the Bienal de Vilanova de Cerveira or the DIDAC Foundation. He just started his PhD in Vigo, Galiza.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research A prototype of this performance was presented in 2022 at the symposium “Non-Knowledge, Laughter and the Moving Image,” led by Annika Larsson at INDEX Foundation in Stockholm. In 2023, it was shown at the Royal Institute of Art’s graduation exhibition at Konstakademien and at the Auditorio de Galicia museum in Santiago de Compostela. In 2026, a new version will be presented as part of the Anozero program at the Coimbra Biennial in Portugal.
Additional information The technical requirements are simple. I would only need my laptop and some speakers.
Spatial and technical requirements The technical requirements are simple. I would only need my laptop and some speakers. I could adapt to the available space, even though it would be easier in an empty room than in a conference room.
Potential risks or ethical concerns My interest in working with abstract parts of language stems from my desire to understand a tongue as something alive and hybrid. My only dilemma is whether, by accepting the reality of this hybridization in a context of diglossia, we lose part of the idiosyncrasy of the Galician language.
Create a user account for SAR 2026 Yes
Create new user Breogán Torres Gutiérrez