A Site-Specific Sound Installation.

Life, death and the transformations in between are the focus of this 6-channel installation. The presence and absence of humankind leaves traces and changes the landscape. Past and present merge here acoustically, drawing attention to transformation processes and encouraging reflection. Once monks lived here, raised bees, accompanied the transitional stages of human life – birth, communion, marriage, funeral. Today, the place itself is in a transitional stage. New life has moved in – ants, moths, bats and ivy next to the traces of old use. The artists sonified the traces of time, the past and the present, conquest and reconquest.
All the sounds and voices sounded from hidden speakers in the sacristy of the Santa Susanna Chapel in El Polell, Spain. The chapel was abandoned for decades and was reopened for the first time for the final presentation of the Sound Art Residency Audiotalaia Summer Camp 2018 in El Polell, Montseny, Spain.

Also on framework radio: here (starting 39:29)
installation / concept / text / recordings
Martina Weber, Carina Pesch
mix
Carina Pesch
images
The residency was made possible by the European Cultural Foundation and Compagnia di San Paolo.


Edu Comelles presenting the final installations Weber pointing the way Around the corner from the old graveyard of the chapel. Living and Dying. Constructing and Deconstructing. Transforming. Can’t see the process of the wall decaying but you can hear it. The first visitors following the ants’ trail, listening to the collapsing wall. Entering the sacristy of the chapel by the backdoor meanwhile voices adapting the water sounds to the words for water-waterdrop-dropping in Catalan, Spanish, and English. We made the water basin that ran dry sound again Long ago the hermit monks who guarded the church were the ones who first kept bees, harvested the wax, produced candles. Today candles are made of parafin. We found some long paraffin candles – all twisted and bend – in the cupboard… made the bees audible in the sacristy … Who is keeping and who is kept? It is the monks who kept the bees It is the bees who make the wax Both gone now – monks and bees and wax Candles made of paraffin… The ivy starting to grow from the ground, further up only its skeleton is still visible. growing ivy made audible. Listening closely to the transformation. Happy creators