Son[i]a #135
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Let us imagine a work that consists in crushing, repeatedly and mechanically, an object – a plastic water bottle – by another – a piece of hand luggage. A crush that produces a sound, amplified by eight channels, which occupies the totality of the central space of the Capella MACBA.
Not far from this curious and strange conflict between things, we find another two objects, one of them equally curious: a photograph taken by David Seymour during the siege of Barcelona in 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War, in which we see a citizen stocking up on water. Thanks to the collectivisation of water in Barcelona by the anarchists, water was then a common commodity, which ensured survival. Next to it there is a fountain. Built with IKEA catalogues, piled up and with a straw on top emulating a jet, this silent fountain alludes to the most basic liquid in life, an absent liquid: water.
The totality of the ‘Natascha Sadr Haghighian. De paso’ exhibition at La Capella MACBA refers to common commodities, to transformation, to cultural and political life, to consumerism, and to having access to them. But it achieves something unprecedented: nothing is reduced to an icon, to an image.
Son[i]a talks to Natascha Sadr Haghighian about the ‘# 04 Natascha Sadr Haghighian. De paso’ exhibition.
Jessica Ekomane
Jessica Ekomane is a sound artist and composer, and a lecturer in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin. Ekomane’s quadraphonic performances and installations approach algorithmic/computer music as a social practice that is grounded in questions such as the relationship between individual perception and collective dynamics, and explores listening expectations and their societal roots. In this podcast, we talk about the freedom of play, eMule, pipe organs, the limitations and flexibility of Max/MSP, early non-Western sound synthesis, DIY research, quotas, minimalism, and her early love for Ligeti and Destiny's Child.
# 04 Natascha Sadr Haghighian. De paso
The technical aspects behind the sound installation '# 04 Natascha Sadr Haghighian. De paso', explained by the artist herself.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Interview with Natascha Sadr Haghighian about artistic research, the relationship between art and politics and artistic practices as a driving force for emancipation.