Alive Sensations of Color to the Rhythm of Music

David Moratón – Painter and Video Artist

Alive Sensations of Color to the Rhythm of Music

Although born in Alicante (1974), artist David Moratón spent his entire childhood in Tenerife, where his maternal family is from. After obtaining a degree in Fine Arts, he moved to Germany, where he completed his artistic training in Hanover, earning a second university degree in Fine Arts.

With an ability that some neurologists refer to as perceptual anomaly, Moratón is a synesthete — someone who consciously perceives colour when hearing sounds. For him, sounds and music involuntarily generate a living, animated sensation of colour in his mind.

As he explains: “I’ve always painted in oil, but the computer and 3D animation techniques allow me a much more flexible and efficient way to represent these synesthetic images that appear in my mind and project them onto the canvas through video.”

His works “Sonidos de un Grillo” (“Sounds of a Cricket”), “Canto de Ballena” (“Whale Song”), and “15 primeros segundos del concierto para violín de Jean Sibelius” (“First 15 Seconds of the Violin Concerto by Jean Sibelius”) are, indeed, video paintings where the viewer sees the animated paintings and perceives the sound perfectly synchronized with the image.

The artist leverages his perceptual capabilities to unleash his creativity.

He adds: “My works aim to make us understand that the sound of a cricket, a whale’s song, or the tone of a violin in a Sibelius concerto are just as important as everything defined as ‘transcendental truth’.”

Among his solo exhibitions are shows at the Hannover School of Fine Arts (2001); “Der Sprung” at the Expo 2000 venue; and “Fantasía y Sinestesia” (“Fantasy and Synesthesia”) installed in 2004 at La Sala Los Lavaderos in Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s Town Hall.

He has also participated in group exhibitions such as “Anatomía” (1997), at the Casa de la Cultura of the Valencia Town Hall; the 11th Tenerife Animated Short Film Festival; and the Summer Salon at Galería MurNö (2005).

El Dia, Tenerife, Spain
29 September
2005