Welcome to Dreaming/Undreaming! 

In loving memory of its lead collaborator, Carmen-Helena Téllez, Dreaming/Undreaming stands as both a tribute to her extraordinary life and one of her final artistic endeavors. The project reflects her unwavering belief in the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration, authentic storytelling, and the transformative potential of the arts. We invite you to explore and share this immersive work as a celebration of her vision, her artistry, and the enduring legacy she leaves for future generations of artists and audiences alike.

With gratitude and remembrance,

Ryan Belock
Video & Projection Designer
Collaborator, Dreaming/Undreaming

Inspired by tales of the masterful Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges that Carmen-Helena Téllez read in her youth,  Kosmologia created a unique visual and musical experience, an art-music video where we travel between worlds of persuasive dreams and deceptive realities in our universe.  

A piano recital progresses seamlessly between original compositions created by Carmen-Helena Téllez specifically for this project in conversation with preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach, the master of polyphony.

So far there are three versions of this project. After the first art video created for the Princeton Festival in June 2021, Kosmologia reconfigured Dreaming/Undreaming as a mixed media event for the Ear Taxi Festival concert of Saturday, September 18, 2021, where Natasha Stojanovska played live the music compositions in their original relationship with the videos, as designed by the project creators. In the second concert of Sunday, September 19, 2021, the audience was asked to select the order of the videos to accompany the music, producing a completely different relationship between images and music. The audience was encouraged to attend both versions, to enjoy the diversity and surprises of perception once the video order changed between them. 

You can now see and compare both versions: the original version for the Princeton Festival, and the version created by the audience’s choices in the Ear Taxi Festival of Chicago. Continue scrolling below!

Background of the Project

“Dreaming/ Undreaming” was commissioned by the Princeton Festival and its director Gregory Geehern, with artistic direction by Carmen-Helena Tellez, dramaturgy by Chia Patiño, and videos by Ryan Belock and Camilla Tassi, framing the pianistic and movement virtuosity of Natasha Stojanovska and Alexa Capareda. The Princeton Festival pages hosts an interesting conversation between the festival directors and the artists about the creation of Dreaming/Undreaming.

Dreaming/Undreaming at Ear Taxi Festival – Chicago, September 18 and 19, 2021

Dreaming/Undreaming was selected to be part of the fantastic lineup of Spotlight concerts of the Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago, taking place between September 15 and 29, 2021. The concert took place at Pianoforte Chicago, on September 18 and 19. Natasha Stojanovska played a gorgeous Fazioli grand piano. On Saturday, September 18, both the music and the video were played and cued live in the original sequence by Natasha, Ryan Belock and Camilla Tassi. On Sunday, September 19, the audience was offered the chance to mix and match the five video “chapters” that constitute the whole video sequence in Dreaming/Undreaming, and in so doing, created a new relationship between images and music, with arguably new perceptions and meanings.

See the two versions below. Do not forget to leave your ideas in our reactions form!

A pianist, a dancer and a writer are creating their own stories. Who is dreaming who? They search in the city, in their music and in their books. Who starts the story? Who ends it?