The 8th edition of the Dar a ouvir Festival: The Sound of All Things, in Coimbra
On July 18, the eighth edition of the Dar a Ouvir festival, a project co-organised by Educational Department of Jazz ao Centro Clube (JACC) and the São Francisco Convent / Coimbra City Hall, opened its exhibition section, divided into three parts. The date is particularly significant as it is World Listening Day, set by the World Listening Project in 2010. The day was chosen in honour of R. Murray Schafer, born on that same day in 1933. The Canadian composer, music educator and author was key to coining the terms Soundscape and Acoustic Ecology in the 1970s. In 2003 he was the artistic director of the Coimbra Vibra project.
Along the lines suggested on the opening day, this article begins by discussing the sound installation MS02 (Mobiliário Sonoro 02), by Cristiana Bastos, Pedro Martins and Tiago Martins. This is an interactive piece that brings together sounds from the Sound Archive of the Historic Centre of Coimbra (asCHC), “a collection of soundscapes and landmarks gathered by the Jazz ao Centro Club under Luís Antero’s artistic direction”[1]. This cobblestone, whose facing is a woodcut that welcomes the visitor, features several drawers which, when opened, unveil sounds taken from the said archive. This interactivity allows the public to build unusual soundscapes, genuine composites, resulting from the participant’s randomness or playful strategy. The sounds, taken from the daily life of the city of Coimbra, are both archive and time in themselves.
The following moment, the solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Gil Delindro, entitled A Natureza não Reza, is formed by six works made over the last six years that share the hallmark of revealing nature sounds that are indescribable in the human lexicon, expressing the idea of incomprehension and estrangement in our relationship with the environment. This intent to capture and let the sculptural side of sounds, that inevitably elude us is a delicate dialogue with the planet, be heard.
As opposed to a certain way of representing it in the history of art, the landscape is here portrayed in its becoming, an ongoing movement, sometimes invisible, whose unusual audibility is evident. The artist operates between natural elements (such as burnt cork, rye straw or bambo wood), as well as elements that allow for sound amplification (subwoofer, copper or aluminium plate), foreign to the planet in a primal perspective, but essential for composing these sound sculptures that are highly influenced by the relationship with the viewer’s body (sound and visual aspects are obviously affected by the distance at which the visitor stands). The issue of sound as a physical phenomenon is even more apparent in Para lá da escuta 1 & 2, conceived in collaboration with a group of deaf people. Besides the material element, it is also important to stress the importance of the geographical source of some of the sounds used by Gil Delindro which, due to their origins, naturally add to the density of the works.
Titled Mil Pássaros, the third moment, a project by Companhia de Música Teatral, is an installation produced in collaboration with educators, educational assistants and children from 48 kindergarten classrooms in Coimbra. These paper birds, or orizuros, crafted using the origami art, are combined with a “visual and sound whispering“[2], in a message of peace, happiness and the quest to fulfil desires.
Dar a Ouvir ends on September 1, and its programme includes sound performances, concerts and workshops, as well as exhibitions at the São Francisco Convent – Salão Brazil.
[1] From the event room text.
[2] From the event room text.