Signal Festival 2023 – Federico Díaz – Concrete Layers

Signal Satellites are works created using digital tools, modelling, and construction – off-route installations accessible year-round but animated during the festival through special light shows. These works resonated with the 2023 festival theme Ecosystems: Exploration. We were delighted to be part of the Signal Festival 2023.

A primeval gorge amid ultramodern structures. Between the sleek lines of the Bořislavka Centre’s ultramodern architecture, a powerful reminder of ancient paths emerged. Federico Díaz’s monumental sculpture Aerial (To the Mountain) evoked the memory of a historic trade route that once traversed this landscape—a trail winding through forests and meadows, a mountain pass that offered safe passage through difficult terrain. The sculpture takes the form of a natural geological formation, recalling rock strata, fossilized trees, or the slow-growing bodies of stalagmites. Díaz’s Aerial stands as a meditation on time itself—static, yet seemingly in motion. Rising from a water basin, its high-strength concrete surface glistens with flowing water, creating an ever-changing visual experience. The sculpture weighs 57,000 kilograms and reaches a height of 7.5 metres. It was created using a custom-developed robotic layering technique, a technology Díaz and his team spent years perfecting.

Aerial (To the Mountain) came alive during the 2023 Signal Festival through a specially created videomapping by Jan Hladil and original sound performances designed for this occasion. A unique sonic dimension was added to the work through compositions made by touching the sculpture’s robotically printed concrete surface. These experimental tracks formed the basis for the vinyl record Concrete Layers, composed by musician Jonáš Rosůlek and released after the festival. The album explores the human relationship to landscape, its morphology and geological layers, and reflects on architecture, craftsmanship, and the possibilities of building through software algorithms and artificial intelligence. It features four tracks: Concrete Layers, Foundation, New Materiality, and Permanent Structures.

Federico Díaz is a conceptual and multimedia artist renowned for pioneering the use of new media in contemporary art. Early in his studies, he departed from traditional techniques like painting and sculpture, immersing himself in the realms of digital and technological media. From 2007 to 2014, he led the Supermedia Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM). His work focuses on the relationship between humans and the world in our information-saturated, increasingly impersonal era, probing the intersection of artificial and natural realities. He seeks to give physical form to elusive phenomena such as light, movement, and energy. Díaz is also the founder of So Concrete, a company specializing in advanced sculptural, architectural, and design solutions through 3D concrete printing.

Jan Hladil is a Czech visual artist whose background spans graphic design and supermedia, having studied under Federico Díaz at UMPRUM. He works as a VJ, projection technician, and video operator, and creates visual content for the Lunchmeat label, Vision Factory, and Signal Productions. As a visual artist, he collaborates with Laterna magika at the New Stage of the National Theatre. His independent work explores sociocultural and physical phenomena, reinterpreting them through distinctive visual language into artistic forms of knowledge. Hladil’s work has been exhibited in the National Gallery Prague, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague City Gallery, and the Chemistry Gallery.

Jonáš Rosůlek studied scenography at JAMU and later joined the Supermedia studio at UMPRUM. He works as a sound engineer at Czech Radio. Over time, he has shifted his focus from audiovisual to primarily audio-based work. In the past, he was active in several music projects (Ethno Service, Popper-C, Fremeni, etc.), co-founded the NEEDLES studio and the City Surfer collective. He has composed music for several theatre productions, audiovisual performances, and short films. He also leads the music project PIANO DI EMERGENZA.