Livia Rita is a young artist with an inexhaustible spring of creativity. Her imagined, edenic universe is lush, a gorgeous mesh of queer utopia and eco-feminism. A Swiss native who was raised in the Alps, nature has always been a part of her life even though she is now London-based.

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For Rita, music is inextricable from fashion and visual art; she draws on the super stylised avant-garde when performing. Her debut visual album, FUGA FUTURA, was developed at the Barbican under mentorship by the late Lindsay Kemp who taught both David Bowie and Kate Bush. The album will be accompanied by a series of music videos and an art magazine containing lyrics, photography and sustainable fashion pieces all designed by Rita.

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The first released single ‘Just Happier’ has stripped back vocals and heavy synth interludes that crescendo as the song unfolds. The music video begins with Rita slowly reaching her way out of a mountain of soil, then escaping from a gooey clear cocoon. Later, she wears a multitude of white balloons (an apt visual for clouds) as the repeated question ‘why can’t the blue sky be bluer’ is sung over and over, while the balloons and her body are visibly contaminated by dark smoke and dust.

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Her eclectic music is compromised of genres like electronic pop, experimental, classical and new wave. Otherworldly melodies are layered by synth soaked sounds. Her sound is Björkcore, possibly akin to early Grimes, though Rita has more distinct vocals. Her professed influences include The Knife and Yves Tumor.

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Her upcoming bold gig at The Old England pub will feature music, dance, activism and future writing, mostly from her upcoming album FUGA FUTURA. The night is titled Kissing Futures, as it explores the potential for a post-human world while focusing on environmental protection; Rita shows how art becomes a space for rebirth in relation to nature, gender and new notions of beauty.

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She will perform with The Avantgardeners Collective, a group of dancers, producers, artists, musicians and designers that help Livia Rita bring her edenic world to life. The result is a furious, dreamy and tantalising live show; a surreal 4D music video that immerses us in her post-human utopia of future feminism and queer ecology. It’s all about collective freedom and inspiring the audience to gain ownership over the future, in an uncertain period of post-brexit, climate crisis. Rita will have support from local Bristol artists and activists like Sarahsson and Alice Human.

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Kissing Futures boasts the tagline ‘join us and reach for utopia’. This unique event will reimagine a queer, feminist eden as it depicts a truly multidimensional fantasy for its audience. Bristol is the penultimate stop of Livia Rita’s tour, so you should witness this radical gig on Friday 22nd November before it is too late.

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In a recent piece for Dazed magazine, Rita explained:

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“I consider myself not just connected to nature, but to embody it...My aim is to overwhelm people’s senses. I want to convey urgency in these times of environmental crisis and political unrest. My art and music promote social and political activism, a refusal to surrender to what we have been given and instead reach for utopias and forge speculative new worlds through radical togetherness.”

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TICKETS: https://www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/#date=2019-11-22&event_id=57906

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Photo courtesy of Nina Marie Glahe and Livia Rita.

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