A set of five reverberation units—large steel plates, each equipped with a transducer that converts audio signals into physical vibrations. Before modern digital acoustic processing, this type of plate was used in sound and music studios to add reverberation to recordings. Also known as plate reverbs, they are recreated here as interfaces which interact with the surrounding environment both inside and outside the Centro Botín, and function as a kind of long-duration stopwatch.

Each Collected Air features a different performer from the Portuguese free music scene, invited to play and improvise with each reverb unit, at the rate of one performance a month for the duration of the exhibition. Each musician’s performance is captured and played back through their assigned plate in the exhibition space, causing the installation to grow and mutate with each activation.

Concurrently, the plates also resonate with a live transmission of ambient sounds emanating from outside Centro Botín. This livestream audio feed is recorded alongside each performance so that each plate becomes not only a musical record but a time capsule, preserving the traces of a specific moment: the musician’s performance alongside the weather conditions and the unpredictable events that accompanied it. What started in unison ends as a double quintet, melding five different musicians’ outputs and five disparate days over a period of five months.

 

Nuno da Luz ft. Pedro Alves Sousa, Collected Air 30/05/2025 (2025)

 

Reverberation unit (steel plate, steel rack, transducer, amplifier, audioplayer, flight case, sound).
2580 × 1580 × 450 mm, 60min. (loop).

 

Nuno da Luz ft. Inês Tartaruga Água & Xavier Paes, Collected Air 16/07/2025 (2025)

 

Reverberation unit (steel plate, steel rack, transducer, amplifier, audioplayer, flight case, sound).
2700 × 1700 × 600 mm, 60min. (loop).

 

 

 

Nuno da Luz ft. Angélica Salvi, Collected Air 10/09/2025 (2025)

Reverberation unit (steel plate, steel rack, transducer, amplifier, audioplayer, flight case, sound).
2580 × 1380 × 450 mm, 60min. (loop).
Photo: Vicente Paredes

 

Nuno da Luz ft. João Pais Filipe, Collected Air 13/08/2025 (2025)

 

Reverberation unit (steel plate, steel rack, transducer, amplifier, audioplayer, flight case, sound).
2580 × 1380 × 450 mm, 60min. (loop).

 

Looking towards the Bay of Santander, we can see the towns of Pedreña, Somo, the Miera Estuary, and the Dunes of Puntal further East. Two boat horns blow continuously for approximately 30 minutes; the same time interval between boat departures from the Palacete del Embarcadero to Puntal beach during Summer.

Nuno da Luz 

 

Nuno da Luz (Lisbon, 1984) is a sound artist and publisher whose practice circumscribes both aural and visual in the form of installations, performances and printed matter. Grounded in attentive listening as an eco-sensible methodology and tool, his practice undulates between the ecologies and pedagogies of noise-making, and book-making through the publishing collective ATLAS (in collaboration with Gonçalo Sena). In 2015, he completed the Master Program of Experimentation in Arts and Politics at SciencesPo Paris, and co-founded COYOTE, an undisciplinary collective working intersectionality as both method and topic, crossing conceptual and experimental forms (in collaboration with Tristan Bera, Elida Høeg, Clémence Seurat and Ana Vaz). He is currently conducting a PhD research project in sound art at the School of Arts UCP (Porto), entitled ‘Echologies of Noise’. Recent projects include the solo shows ‘Airs’ (Galeria Vera Cortês, 2024), and ‘Heart of Sky Centro do Vento’ (gnration, Braga, 2021); group show ‘Feral Ballads’ (Cité internationale des arts, Paris, 2024); the monograph ‘Poetry as an echological survival’ (Lisbon/Porto: Documenta/UCPress, 2022); and the double LP ‘Beasts of Gravity’ in collaboration with Joana Escoval (The Vinyl Factory, 2019). During the 2024/25 season, he will be a resident host at the online radio station Stegi (Athens), with the monthly show “environments”. He was a resident of Fondation Carasso’s IN SITU programme (Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2023–24), and a recipient of the Locus Sonus Locus Vitae Creative Research Grant (ESAAIX, Aix-en-Provence, 2022). In 2024, he was awarded Prix COAL Transformative Territories Mention.

Nuno da Luz (Lisboa, 1984) é artista sonoro e publicador cuja prática circunscreve tanto o aural como o visual na forma de instalações, performances e matéria impressa. Radicado na escuta atenta como metodologia e ferramenta eco-sensível, a sua prática ondula entra as ecologias e pedagogias do fabrico de ruído, e o fabrico de livros através do coletivo editorial ATLAS (em colaboração com Gonçalo Sena). Em 2015, completou o programa de Mestrado de Experimentação em Artes e Política em SciencesPo Paris, e co-fundou o coletivo indisciplinar COYOTE – que assume a interseccionalidade como método e tema, cruzando formas conceptuais e experimentais (em colaboração com Tristan Bera, Elida Høeg, Clémence Seurat e Ana Vaz). Atualmente está a desenvolver um projeto de pesquisa doutoral em artes sonoras, na Escola das Artes UCP (Porto), intitulado “Echologias do ruído”. Projetos recentes incluem as exposições individuais “Airs” (Galeria Vera Cortês, Lisboa, 2024), e ‘Heart of Sky Centro do Vento’ (gnration, Braga, 2021); as exposições coletivas Feral Ballads’ (Cité internationale des arts, Paris, 2024) e Biennale Gherdeina 8 Persones Persons (Ortisei, Itália, 2022); a monografia “Poetry as an echological survival” (Lisbon/Porto: Documenta/UCPress, 2022); e o disco duplo “Beasts of Gravity” em colaboração com Joana Escoval (The Vinyl Factory, 2019). Durante a temporada 2024/25, será artista residente na rádio online Stegi (Atenas) com o programa mensal “environments”. Em 2023, foi residente do programa IN SITU, na Cité internationale des arts, Paris, e em 2022, residente do laboratório Locus Sonus Locus Vitae, Aix-en-Provence. Em 2024, foi galardoado com a Menção Transformative Territories do Prix COAL.