Unravelling/Desenredando had its first show in the Arnolfini, Gallery in Bristol during 2 days (March 2 and 3). It was well attended by general audiences (approx. 300 people in total) and we offered two collective listening experiences: one with 11 migrant women, at the launch of the installation, and another on the night of the same day, for about 20 members of the IAN network.
People were immersed and felt an embodied listening experience, even if they didn't understand Spanish language. "It felt quite physical, as though I was actually in a room full of people speaking (and of course) some physically-present people who were not. Although I don't speak Spanish, I found myself swept into a immersive state of narrative reception as my time in there went on”.
The immersive experience for the migrant women was intense as for most of them feeling identified their own experience: "Surprisingly, I understood the message even though I didn't master the Spanish lingua, because the intensity of the voice, the deep breathing and the emotion in the words already said a lot. I identified myself in many moments as being an immigrant myself. It was a unique experience, which made me fully aware that I am not alone on this journey, on the journey to find myself, wherever I live, wherever I am."
Many thanks to the partners of this project Arnolfini Gallery and its team, the IAN network, MyWorld, The Studio, and the collaboration with the artist Ulf A.S. Holbrook!
Also, I am very grateful with Margaret Koudelcova from Routed Magazine, who attended to the IAN network collective listening experience, and who offered a public review of Unravelling!
Text:
Space to listen: Hear voices of women-on-the-move travelling the world* (installation review)
What is it like to move to a different country? To cross thousands of miles, across the ocean? What is it like to migrate as a Colombian woman, arriving in Europe?
🎊 Unravelling / Desenredando 🎊 a surround-sound bilingual installation (Spanish and English) invites you to listen to voices of nine Colombian women from varied backgrounds, as they listen to and resonate with each others’ stories of their migratory journeys to Europe.
Premiered at Arnolfini Arts, the installation, like the voices of the women, is travelling the world, from Bristol (UK, 2-3 March), to Bogotá and Manizales (Colombia, 6-12 May) and back to Belfast (Northern Ireland, September).
The sound artist-researcher Ximena Alarcon (PhD, MA, BA) and the composer and spatial audio researcher Ulf A. S. Holbrook wove an hour’s long tapestry from the (audio) encounters of the nine women, from their relationships, creating a space that feels at once welcoming, captivating, and strange. Whether you understand the words or only the emotions, you are invited to pause and move around, listening to both the words and the breathing pauses, and simultaneously try to listen to your own breathing. Stay as long as you wish, enjoy your visit – and maybe leave with a new faint thread tying you to a community of sisterhood across borders.
*Routed’s Editor-in-Chief, Margaret Koudelkova, would like to thank Ximena Alarcon (PhD, MA, BA) for the invitation to the premiere event, and Arnolfini Arts for commissioning the review.
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