Introductory Text
by
José Iges
The works of this program are related to politics and society,
basically Iberoamerican. However their authors, presenting each other
few affinities in the procedures, and also belong to different
generations and nationalities, have in common the interest in using
sound with a political consciousness, taking its themes of society.
With "Argentina 78' remix", Fabián Racca builds a sort of
bastard radio play that manipulates, through a turntable and a mixer
with sampling, the vinyl of the radio transmissions of the matches of
the Argentine World Cup of Football 1978 and music composed for the
event. The election, far from being arbitrary, has a strong ideological
charge.
Two aspects are related in “Oídos de Acero” (Ears of
Steel), the work made by Zael Ortega in 2009 as a commission of
Fonoteca Nacional of Mexico. On the one hand, this work is largely
based on the hard, unyielding and stoic battle by the mexican social
activist Salvador Zarco Flores (born 1944) against the deaf
institutional dismantling of National Railways of Mexico. On the other
hand, this work intends a measured evocation on the ideological and
cultural explosion that happened in Mexico in 1910: the Mexican
Revolution.
Concha Jerez and José Iges made a multiphonic work for the EES
of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) of Mexico. Among other sounds,
they used those from large public protest demonstrations that took
place in 2012 in Madrid and Mexico City. Their "Sonic Cartography"
continues their speech around the No-Mans Land as deregulated spaces or
with a changeable regulation, that are in consequence also places for
disorientation. And there is no doubt that the current crisis –
not just in the economic sense- favors their expansion. This the World
Premiere of the radio version.
The ecuadorian artist and organizer Fabiano Kueva made in 2002 his
"Espejo de Sonido" ("Mirror of Sound") as an exercise of soundscape and
critical geography developed as a radio broadcast satellite between the
cities of Quito and Guayaquil. The sound contrast challenges the
official discourse that antagonizes both cities and the work suffered
censorship and should be suspended as installation.
1. Fabián Racca, AR: Argentina 78 remix -frgms-
2008, 13'
![](PICS/15c9ww.jpg)
- El viento cruza la cancha (The wind crosses the Court) 7'40"
-
Después de tantas cosas que se dijeron (After
so many things that are said) 3'15"
-
Nuestro corazón (Our Heart) 2'12"
The
original manipulations are from 1998, which generated several hours of
different transformations, that made the material somewhat intractable
in terms of time required for processing it in a composition, since it
did not have computers to work at that time... I also remember that
everything was made without any budget, out of common working hours. So
that in 2008, excited by the possibilities of digital editing, I
realized the final remix in a month with Audacity software.
F. Racca
With Argentina 78' remix, Fabián Racca builds a sort of bastard
radio play that manipulates, through a turntable and a mixer with
sampling, the vinyl of the radio transmissions of the matches of the
Argentine World Cup of Football 1978 and music composed for the event.
The election, far from being arbitrary, has a strong ideological
charge. Racca accentuates the nastier details of this traumatic episode
in our history: the voice and the racist comments of the speaker
José María Muñoz, emblematic character of the
time, identified with the military dictatorship; Police sirens as a
counterpoint to the triumph; a goal that the deformation through the
mixer becomes a bitter lament by common graves; the catchy soundtrack
of the Italian composer Enio Morricone modified into a kind of Elegy
for the disappeared. The appeal to our memory is much more effective to
the extent that Racca conforms exclusively to technologies of undoubted
seventies mood - turntables, vinyl-, contemporary of the worst years of
our lives.
2. Zael Ortega, MX:
Oídos de acero (Ears of Steel)
2009, 10'
The sense of sound creation does not lie in the creator's intention
neither in the interpretation of the listener, but is based in the
silence listening of the same sense, that is to say, in its openness
and immanence. Thus, this organization of sounds, called
“Oídos de Acero” (Ears of Steel), similarly seeks to
be to the listening of a dual purpose. On the one hand, this work is
largely based on the hard, unyielding and stoic battle by the mexican
social activist Salvador Zarco Flores (born 1944) against the deaf
institutional dismantling of National Railways of Mexico. On the other
hand, this work intends a measured evocation on the ideological and
cultural explosion that happened in Mexico in 1910 (Mexican
Revolution), focusing especially to the Railway sound object and, more
specifically, their honorable workers. In short, “Oídos de
Acero” (Ears of Steel) is an open work that invites to think the
Railway and to think from the Railway.
![](PICS/Ferrocarrilmexico.jpg)
“Oídos de Acero” (Ears of Steel) is a work of Zael
Ortega especially dedicated to Salvador Zarco Flores, a critical and
responsible mexican social activist.
In 2009, Zael Ortega was commissioned by the National Sound Archive to
create an intermedia work to celebrate the centenary of Mexican
Revolution: “Oídos de Acero” (Ears of Steel), which
recently took the first prize at the 8th International Biennial of
Radio (2010). Also, this work has been presented as a sound
installation at the own National Sound Archive; in the José
Vasconcelos National Library; at the Railway Museum of Mexico City; in
the Museum of Railways of Puebla City; at the “Discantus:
Scenarios of the New Music” International Festival (2009 and 2010
Editions); and the “Puebla: Cradle of the Mexican
Revolution” Festival (organized by the Institute of Arts and
Culture of Puebla City). “Oídos de Acero” (Ears of
Steel) also conform the sound design of a documentary produced and
directed by the Railway Museum of Mexico City, on the rescue of two
Steam Locomotives from 1901: the FCI-67 Locomotive and the NdeT-507
Locomotive. Moreover, “Oídos de Acero” (Ears of
Steel) was performed live on the International Electroacoustic Music
Festival “Spring in Havana 2010”, dedicated to celebrating
the thirtieth anniversary of the National Laboratory of Electroacoustic
Music, and the 45 years of the first public concert of Electroacoustic
Music in Cuba, organized by composer Juan Blanco.
Commissioned and produced by Fonoteca Nacional de México.
3. Concha Jerez-José Iges, ES:
Tierras de nadie:
Cartografía Sonora (No-Man's Land: Sound
Cartography)
Coproduction ORF Kunstradio - MUAC EES / premiere stereo and 5.1 vers. 2012-2013, 15'
![](PICS/carto-corto.jpg)
Tierras de nadie: Cartografía Sonora has as its origin the
intermedia project Terre di nessuno (Tierras de nadie), carried out in
Madrid in 2002, from which other subsequent installations have arisen,
all of which employ audiovisual and informatic resources, as well as
small radiophonic interferences. Having been invited to create a new
work for the space of EES in the Museum MUAC (Mexico City), Concha
Jerez and José Iges were interested in building not with those
same materials, but with the very notions that underlie the
aforementioned work.
Iges and Jerez remind us that the theoretician and radiophonic producer
Pinotto Fava asserted two decades ago that: “in the world in
which we live in, the only possible lands are No-Man's Lands”. If those terre di nessuno are deregulated spaces or with
a changeable regulation, they are in consequence also places for
disorientation. And there is no doubt that the current crisis
–not just in the economic sense- favors their expansion.
With this work, the artists propose an acoustic immersion into some of
those No-Man’s Land which have been charted from the recordings
of sonic actions carried out by themselves in many places.
Many, and nobody in particular, are also invited to partake in this
journey through deconstructed landscapes; following, for example, a
pulcinella who, coming from the Commedia dell'Arte reminds us that the
world is one large theatre, from which we receive its sonic shadows in
this place. He is the solitude of the long distance runner, of the
tightrope walker with whom the artists also identify, wishing that our
journey takes us nowhere…
Concha Jerez (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1941) and José Iges
(Madrid, 1951), have been working together since 1989, simultaneously
with their respective individual work. Their practice, which in general
they propose as Expanded Media with a special link to radio, is
expressed as performances, concerts, installations, sculptures, videos
and photomontages.
Since 1976, Concha Jerez centers her work, conceptual in its
methodology, towards the development of in situ works and performances.
In 2011 she received the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas
Artes bestowed by the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
José Iges has composed works for tape and digital supports, as
well as for soloists accompanied by live or recorded electronics and
for instrumental ensembles. His fundamental axis is the interaction
between instruments as well as installation, multimedia art and the use
of stagecraft and radiophonic language.
This composition was accomplished with the collaboration of Jorge
Alberto Alba and the support of the Centro Mexicano para la
Música y las Artes Sonoras (CMMAS), whom we thank for all their
help.
Original recordings: Luc Ferrari, José Manuel Berenguer, Jessica
Trejo, Hernán Risso Patrón, Concha Jerez and José
Iges.
Percussion: Pilar Subirá
Commissioned by EES-MUAC, México. Stereo and 5.1 version produced by Kunstradio - Radiokunst (ORF).
4. Fabiano Kueva, ECU:
Doble Procesión (Double procession)
2000-2012, 11'
![](PICS/Kueva.jpg)
UIO-GYE: MIRROR OF SOUND
It is an exercise of soundscape and critical geography developed
between 2000 and 2002 in the cities of Quito (UIO) and Guayaquil (GYE), Ecuador.
Its thread conductor is the dialog and sound contrast
through games of discursive panning they challenge
the official discourse that antagonizes both cities.
Recorded in a minidisk system with hidden microphones,
Sound mirror is a journey through public spaces,
improvised conversations and media representations.
It was released in July 2002 simultaneously as a radio broadcast
satellite by system ALRED and a sound intervention on Malecon 2000 (GYE)
and Plaza Grande (UIO), spaces in which the work suffered censorship and should be suspended.
Mirror of Sound took part of the art event in the public sphere Ataque
de Alas (Wings Attack) in the Antropological and Contemporary Art
Museum of Guayaquil.
Doble Procesión is a representative fragment of Mirror of Sound.
Link:
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