Livia Rita is a visual artist, “mystic eco-pop” singer, choreographer, and designer. Each of her performed songs embodies a different creature identity functioning as an allegory - each with its own distinct character, formed through costume, scenography and choreography. The goal is to physicalise music and bring to life - in a contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk - the conceptual force, the feeling and the natural element symbolised by the allegory. Out of each creature came a creature gamecard, and from there, Livia created a small ArtFashion collection.

Her practice is an exploration and creation of an alternate world - one that is internal yet far removed from politics, economics, ecology and identity, and which speaks in an abstract, dreamlike language, where dreams and play, emotion, flight, fantasy, and hidden desires are made real.

The style is post-apocalyptic, chimeric, fairy-like, fantastical, thriller.

The textures are organic, earthy, soft, tactile, fleshy.

Hello again Livia, and welcome to Coeval! As I told you after the show of Saturday at ZW in Zurich, your concert was enchanting: powerful, visionary and deeply felt. I can still sense traces of the scent you and your team offered us. I picked one of the cards, and it led me to this beautiful fragrance.

To begin, I’d like to ask you a question that goes straight to the core of your being as an artist.

You’re a prolific and kaleidoscopic artist. When you close your eyes, what do you see? What’s your relationship with the act of creation, and what kind of visions guide you when designing the costumes you bring on stage?

I often feel misty in my head, so maybe what I see are more sentient collages, ambiances, rather than jumpy scenarios and textures… just all rather undefined, so it’s always a process to get specific.

Creating, for me, feels wholesome when I manage to float freely with thoughts and feelings; in visions past, present, and future. When my inner world can interact with the outside world in a fluid way, spilling over, being affected… like the skin disappears, allowing me to channel ideas, dreams, and fears into something more tangible…

For me, emotions come with materialities, wearables with a transformation, landscapes with sounds, lyrics with a story, identities with movements... It’s somehow all interwoven; one idea grows from the next, forming chain reactions... so the wearables really grow organically as part of the worldbuilding, and are very connected to the music, the choreography, the realities I’m searching for…

You’ve said you need a deep entanglement with nature. Could you share with us some of the practices you turn to in order to connect with it? And could you speak a bit about your relationship with Alpine witchery and folk magic?

I try to take the time to arrive into the day and let the natural environment and weather outside touch me. I try to feel awe at the constant change of the ecosystem around me.
My main practice, though, is to go outside and sing. I write most of the vocal lines of my songs walking and wandering. Emotions bounce around and come back to me differently.

I am totally hunting local tales and rituals, which often include lots of symbolism around the different elements, especially fire and water… I’m very interested in reading about the different ways of life during the different seasons. I find it fascinating how the mountains used to be a zone of danger and wilderness… I am curious to find further entanglements with the alpine surroundings and magic. I’m so attracted to sensing the land and its possibilities…
How can we get together in the future? Feel the power of the mountain or landscapes in a collective way?

I’ve been very inspired by two elderly local women who are such dear herbal witches and so generous in sharing their wisdom and amazement at interacting with plants… and am also very sad that a lot of these ecosystems are collapsing, not accessible, etc…

If I understood correctly, part of your mission is to step beyond the human, overburdened by the duties of being and doing, and make space for new kinds of beings: more-than-human identities, shaped by feelings and sensations like courage, or softness, or also becoming water (abandonment, fluidity, cohesion?). To sing these new creatures, and wear them, during your performances, is to bring them to life, to pass through them - is that right? Have you ever thought of exploring other formats for your practice - something even more like a ritual than a concert?

Ah, thank you for your beautiful description. Yes. I really appreciate seeing work through other people’s eyes, because I get absorbed in the state of just being in it and struggle to describe it.

Yes, very curious about different forms and spaces of anything ‘live’, for example in visual spaces we can shift focus into a much more concise, layered yet clear and simple expression. In a recorded pop song, the aim is often to be very intimate and zoomed in, or in a club or at a late-night festival, the energy can totally be thrown around and become feral…

I wonder a lot about how these concerts or IRL happenings can feel like a transformative ritual. I am on the search… A moment in time that invites us to be affected, that turns us into temporary communities, that transforms… For me, at the moment, music is the most direct way to connect, to feel together, to communicate without having to ‘translate’ a lot. It really is a fruitful setting for vulnerability.

Did you experience any particular feelings or insights during your latest performance in Zurich that you’d like to share with us?

It was very intense, and I really had to give my full being to it for quite a period of time - properly diving in - and then I came out somewhere else, and my body and mind felt so different. I really enjoyed re-emerging back into the world after. After shows, I often feel both really naked/exposed and empowered. The feedback I receive, alongside how the people involved feel afterwards, really means a lot to me. Moments of community. If it goes beautifully, it gives me the energy to step into the next idea.

In a way, this project, as with many others, tries to do a lot with the resources at hand. It’s a challenge in many ways one shares with people. In Zurich, I really enjoyed the space and the people who came together. I worked with precious dancers, band, creatures, crafters, production team… I really care a lot about these work accomplices.

What’s your typical day and your ideal one - hopefully they overlap as much as possible?

An ideal day starts with a soft wake-up, taking time to arrive in my body. Having the space to react to how I feel, to go with moods, to be honest and be present… to not get stuck, to not have to push… to feel the fire in me… to get surprised or challenged in a good way by my collaborators… So overall, it’s moving in an organic way through different states.

A typical day often includes a bit too much of the following: time passing too fast, feeling behind with things, challenging health, feeling overwhelmed at times, some heartaches and headaches. And - very important - I wish reading the news would not be so heavy for this world like it currently is…

Which books or films have most opened your mind, inspired your thinking and your being who you are today?

Generally, inspiration comes more from the direction of music, people, and my environment: places, cities, relationships. I get crazily hooked on (fiction) books… they just take me in so fully! So I tend to avoid them to not get absorbed crazily much in other worlds… but I would like to get into the habit of reading a couple of pages every day, to get new perspectives.

Films: I watched all the music biopics I could find, and get input from everything that’s to do with the future (most of them are pretty dark and apocalyptic...)

I loooooove Studio Ghibli… how the films open up unexpected narratives through a respect for nature, society, and the unusual.

I’d love to come to one of your events when it happens in the Alps or anyway in deep Nature. Do you have anything like that scheduled?

Yes! Preparing for a remix EP with songs from FUGA FUTURA, and we will go further with the idea to perform on a chairlift… where creatures, sounds, and visuals fly through the skies onto peaks, over rocks, rivers, and through forests - alongside the audience. It will happen later this summer, in the Alps!