Icaro Lopez de Mesa Moyano also known as Nene del Solar is a Colombian sound-media artist, musician and educator interested in creating instruments based on digital-electronic infrastructures for performing arts. In his artistic PhD Icaro researches the agency of gold used in electronic microchips and connectors, proposing music-sound instruments and performance as alternatives to reflect about environmental damage and ecosystem imbalance that gold mining and extraction has caused in territories around the global south. Thus, Icaro's interest in Elasticity arose from the research on the mining communities and bodies that stretch, resist and fight against gold and metal mining.
Currently, Icaro holds a position as PhD candidate in the University of Groningen (NL) in cooperation with the Artistic Research PhD program at HfK Bremen (DE) where he teaches performance and media design and was former coordinator of the PhD program while conducting research as part of the Critical Instruments project in collaboration with Prof. Dennis P. Paul. Since 2019, he has also been an active member of the performance collective Tremenda Corpórea, working with artist friends to investigate the socio-environmental issues of minerals used on electronics and the intersections of technology, the moving body, and sound.
As a musician his work has been shown in festivals such as SXSW (USA), Lollapalooza (CHI), Fimu Fest (France), Day day up (China), Estéreo Picnic, Rock Al Parque, Festival Hermoso Ruido, and Circulart in Colombia. His work as media artist and performer has been exhibited at Personal Structures Biennale in Venice, EASST4S Amsterdam, GAK Bremen, Schwankhalle, Art Vision Contest Moscow, Design and Emotion, Bogotá Book Fair, Arttec, and Plataforma Bogotá, Mutant Arts Straßburg, S-K-A-M e.V. Stuttgart and Forecast Platform Berlin.
1: Swinging Grams 2023, Performance #2 Lange Nacht der Bremer Museen at GAK Bremen. Photo by Jimmy Liu
2: Elastic Orchestra 2025, Performance with the class Elastic Media at the ship Dauerwelle HfK Bremen. Photo by Victor Artiga.
3: How Far We Stretch 2025, Performance with Valentina Gaete presented at Tabakquiatier Zentrum für Kunst Bremen. Photo by Jimmy Liu.
4: Lithium Love Stories 2025, Performance by Tremenda Corpórea presented at Schwankhalle Bremen. Photo by Marianne Menke
5: Elasticity workshop 2025, at PhD Colloquium in HfK Bremen. Photo by Prof. Dr. Mona Schieren
6: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_0WbT_-BO0 Swinging Grams 2023, Performance #2 Lange Nacht der Bremer Museen at GAK Bremen.
Profile Picture: Swinging Grams 2023, Performance #1 Crystal Room at GAK Bremen
