Conceptual elements

A basic alchemical process involves two different elements losing their substance, mixing and transfusing into something new; they are not destroyed, they are transformed. They acquire different attributes as one single object. This kind of amalgamation may be executed conceptually using two distinct abstract qualities. Two realities can be transfigured; melt into one another with sound acting as the philosophical mercury.

The artwork draws from the idea of fusing two distinct realities in order to produce a new one; a hyper-reality which will perceptually challenges the visitors by stimulating their imagination, triggering memory, emotions and generating psych-geographical connections. Each place has a special unique identity defined by a multitude of factors and perceived or appreciated by the senses. Geographical characteristics, as well as physiological and seasonal features, imply a sense of place rather than the place itself. So what could be our position within a spatial simulacrum that precedes any reality? Aren’t we experiencing it in our everyday life when globalisation and migration infuses cultures within cultures generating new perspectives of community?

Description

Amalgama is a site specific experiential sound intervention. It is the phenomenological transformation of a chosen location. This was achieved by diffusing the sound of choruses of singing cicadas which were recorded during the summertime in Greece, within a carefully selected public pathway in Flachau, Austria in winter time. As expected the visitor’s senses through perceptual confusion completed the transformation.

The artwork was commissioned by and featured at minus20degree Festival for Art and Architecture 2020.

Video presentation