Music for a problem. Larxiu descompost'

Music for a Problem is a project by Gerard Valverde Ros and Marc Villanueva, curated by Difraccions.Between 1972 and 1994, Catalonia undergoes a process of transformation that leaves its mark on artistic production and on contemporary music. In the midst of the transition, as global governance changes and Barcelona prepares for the Olympic Games, a generation of musicians confronts the apathy of the public and the difficulties of approaching contemporary music. At the same time as originality and creativity are defended, more commercial music fills up with synthesizers and programs that automate music production more and more.The installation Music for a Problem starts from the digitisation of the recordings of the II Setmana de la Música Contemporània, held in Barcelona in 1989, and offers the possibility of recomposing the sonic remnants of that festival in a playful and critical key. It is a magnetic instrument, inspired by the Stokos IV (a synthesizer created by Lluís Callejo and Phonos in the early 1970s), which allows the real-time modification of several sound parameters of the archive materials and transforms the questions and debates of the past into queries that reverberate in our present.Music for a Problem is a project developed in residence between 2025 and 2026 at the Museu de la Música, in collaboration with the Cicle Difraccions, based on the documentary collection of the now-defunct Centre de Documentació i Difusió de la Música Contemporània (CDDMC), an entity created in 1986 by the Barcelona City Council and dedicated to music composed after 1950.Based on a critical reading of the Centre's materials currently held at the Museum, the installation does not present the archive as a closed body of knowledge, but as a space that activates possible questions, connections and interpretations.Original idea and creation: Gerard Valverde Ros and Marc VillanuevaArtistic advice: Alán CarrascoCuration: DifraccionsMusic for a Problem is a commission from the Museu de la Música – Centre Robert Gerhard.In collaboration with Difraccions and Dispositiu LEM.