05.11.23 – Intangible Sound of Contact @ Sonoscopia
Pics by Gustavo Costa
The performance closes my residency at Sonoscopia in Porto, which was the result of a cooperation with Errant Sound and Heroines of Sound. Great thanks to Patrícia Caveiro, Gustavo Costa and Vicente Mateus, and everybody at Sonoscopia who supported me during these amazing two weeks, and to Bettina Wackernagel for putting the project together.
Intangible Sound of Contact is a project using sound as the tool to investigate the moment of the first contact between different cultures. Understanding the word culture in a broader, from micro to macro-sociological extended sense, the artist poses questions as: What is the sound of culture contact? How to transport ancient cosmoauditions with sound? How can this knowledge influence us today? Is there a post-colonial way of listening? How does ist sound?
Intangible Sound of Contact reflects on the history of the early 20th century, the time of the so-called neo-colonialism, of flourishing industry and the run for energy sources. Starting from the foundation of the German colony Blumenau in Brazil in 1850 (Laura Mello’s hometown), the artist draws a line leading up to the present day and raises questions about the consequences of racial supremacism and dichotomies such as wildness vs. civilization. Her loudspeaker-costume (designed in collaboration with Lisa Simpson and Albert Amerioun) indicates her constructed self, an artificial figure, result of over 200 years of migration and contact between different cultures.
In a series of audiowalks, performances and scored meetings, Laura Mello proposes an investigation based in three axes: 1. Written history becomes oral / 2. Transporting oral traditions with sound / 3. Encounters become audible. For Sonoscopia, Laura prepared an intimate performance including a project presentation and discussion. Sonoscopia will serve a Magusto before and after the presentation.
Magusto at 5pm
Start 6pm
