An invitation

Dada Duende Record Club would like to invite you to contribute work for our second official edition for the subscription. We are soliciting musical, visual and literary work for our next set. Each set contains a lathe-cut record, a soft cover visual and literary art book, and an 8x8 pigment print. Each of our sets is prompted by a theme, and this set’s theme is: Duende

For an idea of what the end result looks like, please check out our test set, themed “Maquette”, and take a look around this website to get an idea of how it works and who we are!

DUENDE

noun

  1. a quality of passion and inspiration.

  2. (in the folklore of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines) a supernatural being or spirit resembling a pixie or imp.

-Merriam-Webster Dictionary Definition

“The countryman of Spain said, agreeing with Goethe who in speaking of Paganini hit on the definition of the Duende: (Duende is) A mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained.”
— Federico Garcia Lorca's essay "The Theory and Play of Duende"

What we are asking of you:

  • Musicians: up to 7 minutes of original music inspired by or related to the theme (for example, a suite or two shorter songs). We will work with you regarding licensing and duration of use for the music. We will also work with you to record, mix, and master the music for our lathe-cut record medium (if you are near Minneapolis this means studio time, if long-distance we can still collaborate on recording and production).

  • Literary Artists: 1-3 poems, or an essay, or a short work of fiction if you like!

  • Visual Artists: 5-12 visual artworks in your wheelhouse (photography, illustration, collage, painting, etc) to fit on pages sized 8.5x8.5 at 300dpi resolution (if you are local and need my help with digitizing work I can do that!) — they do not have to be square, just letting you know what size page they will be on and print resolution.

    One visual contribution will be chosen for the 8x8 pigment print that we include in our sets, it helps but is not required that you be open to us choosing your work for the print. We make a hundred of each themed set for subscribers, so we would make 100 prints of your work to be included with those (plus the artist-proof sets for each of our contributors). As I mentioned, you can opt out of this if you do not want us to use your work in this manner.

Due Date: we would need digital copies of your artwork ( visual art size specs listed above) to place in the book layout by September 20, 2023 (updated and extended on Aug 13, this is the up to date deadline)

NOTE: should you choose to accept this mission, you do not have to create new work specifically for it, though you are welcome to and encouraged to, of course. We are sending you this invitation because we have looked at your work and see things there that we feel fit this theme. If you want us to let you in on which of your works spurred us to tap you with an invite, we’ll happily message you privately about that!

What do you get out of this? A chance to play, inspiration, and an opportunity to work with a community of other artists who you may or may not already know. It’s interesting to see/hear/read your work when paired with another artist’s musical/visual/literary response to the prompt.

As yet, we are not able to pay contributing artists, but we do give each of you 2 copies of the finished set (valued at $60 per)—one for you and one to share if you choose to. For now, we are only making 100 copies of each set (plus your/our artist’s proof copies), these go to our subscribers. For more info on what we are making, see our home page and our previous sets. At the time of sending this invite, “The Xenophile” is still in production but it will be available in mid-August and we are super excited about it! You can see some of the contributing artists for that one on our blog page or garner more info by signing up for our newsletter.

Some Thoughts on the Prompt, from a recent blog post by my fellow Duende, Chris Lynch:

I came across the word while looking up symbolism and special emotions related to Flamenco dance and music after stumbling upon a video of a young flamenco dance student on youtube a couple of years ago.

Her name is Irene Olvera and what I stumbled on was the first video clip ever posted of her dancing. So, so powerful. She has since posted many videos and I have followed her dancing ever since seeing the first video.

Irene Olvera-first clip

I have always loved Flamenco dance and guitar playing and I thought there must be a special feeling associated with it the way Saudade is associated with Bossa Nova.

I did a little research and found out that Federico Garcia Lorca had written an essay called “Theory and Play of The Duende”. It was actually an edited and expanded lecture that he had given in defense of the cultural significance of Flamenco music and dance and, more broadly, certain folk art in Buenos Aires in 1933. It seems at the time in Spain there was a desire among the cultural elites to hide the more earthy roots of Spanish arts as an attempt to put a more modern face on their culture. I think Lorca was offended by this and he describes a whole different creative source in flamenco: Duende. Duende opposed to the inspiration of the Muse or the Angel.

You can download or read the essay in translation here:

Theory and Play of The Duende

It’s a powerful essay and it is a romantic take on the origin of the deep, dreadful, and beautiful emotions that certain artists can stir in us.

 The Duende is also depicted as a mischievous imp or elf and makes appearances in the folklore of Spanish and many Latin American cultures.

For us, The theme "Duende" brings to mind these words/phrases:

  • something that comes up from the dark/depths, "from the furthest corners of the blood" as Lorca described it

  • very emotive but not saccharine, somewhat raw

  • imps/demons

  • vivid/florid color

  • earthy (as in out of the dirt/soil)

We encourage you to take a look around our site to get to know us, especially the Dada Duende Journal linked at the top of the page. Please know that if you are not able to opt-in for this edition, we will happily reach out again in the future (unless you tell us not to!). We would appreciate it if you accept or decline by July 25th, to give us time to reach out to other artist’s if we need to.

Thank you so much for considering it!

~Hannah Lynch, photographer and one of the 4 members of Dada Duende Record Club based in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Duendecitos, by Goya

a little Duende sitting on a step