Introductory Text
by José Iges
This first IberWave programme brings together works that make reference
to painting, literature or poetry, as well as the translations from
these fields to the realm of radio. Thus, we have grouped them under
the title REFERENCES / TRANSLATIONS.
Furthermore, very different styles -both showing an author's
individual working ethos and the prevalent trends within a
country- will be confronted during the program, a feature which will be
customary in this series.
The authors of the first two works are Mexican, and both their
pieces relate to famous paintings. The two pieces have been the
result of commissions from public institutions: the Fonoteca Nacional
of Mexico and the LEAS laboratory. In the first piece, Manuel Rocha
Iturbide draws inspiration from Frida Kahlo's painting "El Baño
de Frida" ("Fridah's Bath"), with the particularity that the photograph
of the artist's intimate space was taken by the composer's mother, the
well-known photographer Graciela Iturbide.
The second work, by Oscar Rodrigo Alonso and Perla Olivia Rodriguez,
reveals a weaker influence of electroacoustics in their translation of
"The Scream", Edvard Munch's best-known picture. The piece chosen is
part of a of four radio piece collection dedicated by the authors to
the Norwegian painter.
The third work is a World Premiere. Its authors are the Brazilian
Janete El Haouli and José Augusto Mannis. Their work is
dedicated to the memory and poetry of Décio Pignatari, who
passed away in December 2012. Pignatari was one of the founders of
"concrete poetry". Together with his voice and poems are the musical
works that were inspired by them, all of which has been woven with
great affection and finese.
Sound poetry is the the domain in which the works by the Cuban artist
Amarilys Quintero and Peruvian sound artist Luis Alvarado dwell. Both
their works put a limited range of technical resources to great effect.
Finally, Argentinian radio artist and producer Hernán Risso
Patrón translated into sound Julio Cortázar's short story
"La noche boca arriba" ("The night face up") for the radio. The title
of the work is "Heartbeats" ("Latidos") and it was produced by the
Laboratory LEAR in Buenos Aires.
1. Manuel Rocha Iturbide, MX
El baño de Frida (Fridah's Bath)
2012, 8'30"
 
After Frida Kahlo´s death in 1954, her husband Diego Rivera
decided to close two bathrooms with objects and documents belonging to
Frida. In 2004 the rooms were reopened. One of these spaces was
photographed by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, using some of
Frida´s objects stored there, such as here crutches, a Stalin
poster, a dissected turtle, an apron with blood, etc.
In this sound work I was trying to create a sort of Frida´s
portrait, specifically in the context the that small space where she
would hide (her private bathroom), and where there was only a bath tub
and two small pieces of wooden furniture.
This is not the Frida that suffers, but the Frida still child that lets
her self go, traveling (thanks to the effect of water) to the most
profound subconscious space of her psyche. My composition is equally
inspired in the surrealist painting “Lo que el agua me
dejó” (“what the water left me”), realized in
1938, where Frida is inside the bath tub filled with water, where
different beings like insects, the empire state building, a volcano,
Frida´s parents, etc, grow from within. All these icons are
related to the internalization of her intense and complex life.
Manuel Rocha Iturbide
Commissioned by Fonoteca Nacional de México.
2. Oscar
Rodrigo Alonso / Perla Olivia Rodríguez, MX:
El friso de la
vida. Luz y sombra de Edvard Munch Ansiedad (The frieze of life. Light
and shade of Edvard Munch: Anxiety)
2004, 8'52"
The work of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch represents the feelings
of many people, men and women of different cultures every day
experiencing the voluptuousness of the love, the overwhelming presence
of death and the stifling anxiety of living. These radioarts recover,
through the expressive force of the sound, the anxiety and anguish, two
concepts painted by Munch in his works.
Produced by LEAS, México DF.
3. Janete El Haouli / José Augusto Mannis, BR:
Sound piece: in memoriam Decio Pignatari
premiere, 2013, 20'12"
work-sound-poem in honour Decio Pignatari, creator of concrete poetry
in Brazil in 1950 together with the brothers Augusto and Haroldo de
Campos.
By editing, montage and electroacoustic processing, the sounds of
voices and musics based on his poems turn into an invitation to listen
to the creative imagination of this great poet.
The work includes fragments of poems, songs and testimonies
of Decio Pignatari, Augusto e Haroldo de Campos, Cid Campos,
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Mendes, Madrigal Ars Viva and José
Augusto Mannis.
4. Amarilys Quintero, CU:
Declamación muda (Silent Declamation)
2010, 2'
There are words that just pronounced, just whispered they appease in us
tumults; between the idea [...] omitted and the silence, there is an
infinite sound.
5. Luis Alvarado (PER):
La voz de los espíritus (The voice of the spirits)
2011, 1'20"
The Voice of the Spirits is part of the works of the author using voice and simple technological tools.
"I mean that unintelligible voice that one can perceive but you don't
know where it comes, a signal, which can be seen as rather esoteric if
you want;
then I like the idea of producing some things that could be saying something."
6. Hernán Risso/LEAR (AR):
Latidos (Heartbeats)
13'
"Heartbeat" ("Latidos") is inspired by the tale of Julio Cortazar "The
Night face up" ("La noche boca arriba"), which raises a parallel
between the present and the past, reality and fantasy, life and death.
Dark sounds, sounds with pungent smell, linked to remedies and
hospital,to jungle and ritual, to fear. As a nexuses constant
heartbeat, thin line between life and death, between reality and dream.
Compass of waiting... waiting room... waiting for death... the sharp
sound of death.
Produced by LEAR, Buenos Aires.
Link:
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