The Neighbouring Shore
...the ephemeral vibration of sounds echo a fragile presence.
Multichannel sound installation
Premiere: Latin American Art Show at the Bolivar Hall, London, 9-21.11.1998
Exhibited at the "casa abierta - open house" exhibition of Contemporary Argentinean Art in 2006 at the Embassy of the Argentine Republic in London.
Curator: Gabriela Salgado (Tate Modern London)
Artists: Jorge Caterbetti,Leandro Erlich,León Ferrari, Artmongers,Jorge Gumier Maier,Julio Le Parc,Leonel Luna,Jorge Macchi, Jorge & Lucy Orta,Pablo Reinoso,Diana Schufer, Mónica Van Asperen and Mario Verandi.
The Neighbouring Shore is part of the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art, UK.
This piece consist of four sound postcards portraying four different locations in Argentina.
Environmental and abstract sounds are manipulated and assembled on the computer to create a fabric of sonic images at the verge of recognition and ambiguity.
Four scenes that continuously emerge and vanish like blurred memories of absent places and events.
During the exhibition of at the Argentine Embassy in London, eight small loudspeakers were hidden in different places around the wide entrance hall of the Embassy; behind window curtains, sofas and mirrors. Each sound postcard was assigned to a pair of loudspeakers. Volume was adjusted in a way that visitors had to stand relatively close to the area in which hidden loudspeakers were placed.
Each sound postcard is inspired by and metaphorically associated to an Argentinean text belonging to a book or a popular song.
Texts:
Scene 1: ...a riverbank, children playing, birds, a boat in the distance...
gurisito costero, duermase,
si se duerme mi amor
creceras junto al rio mi cielo
seras buen pescador, seras buen pescador."
by Linares Cardozo.
(Sleep little baby from the riverbank, sleep,
if my sweetheart falls asleep
it will grow up by the river
my sweet heaven, it'll be a good fisherman,
it'll be a good fisherman.)
Scene 2: ...a rainy day in a small town, thunders, cars passing by, a dog barking in the distance...
tender una cama es exactamente
lo mismo que tender una cama,
que dar la mano es siempre lo mismo que dar la mano,
que abrir una lata de sardinas
es abrir al infinito la misma lata de sardinas."
by Julio Cortazar.
(Strange that people believe
that making a bed is exactly the same as making a bed,
that shaking hands is always the same as shaking hands,
that to open a tin of sardines is to open eternally the same tin of sardines.)
Scene 3: ...a harbour, the sea, a woman...
adonde vas, quedate hasta el alba.
Muchacha piel de rayon,
no corras mas, quedate hasta el alba."
by L.A. Spinetta.
(Girl of the paper eyes
where are you going,
stay till dawn.
Girl skin of rayon,
don't run away anymore
stay till dawn.)
Scene 4: ...a riverbank at night, cicadas, boats in the dock...
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazon.
Tanta sangre que se llevo el rio
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazon."
by Fito Paez.
(Who said everthing is lost
I am coming to offer my heart
so much blood the river washed away,
I am coming to offer my heart.)