Humeurs is a 4 channels sound installation (30 min) including postcards. It is a site specific piece, created for the exhibition “burble, gurgle, splash” at the Dietikon Projektraum (Switzerland), from 17.04.21 to 30.05.21. The audio piece works with the acoustical charactheristics of the exhibition room, and the visitors are welcome to take the postcards with them.
I went back to record in four different locations where I had strong memories with the river. Following the Limmat, from Zürich to Dietikon, I wrote down those specific moments.
The piece explores the possible intimacy of the water. In French « humeurs », can be translated as « moods », but it also evokes the four organic fluids we have in our bodies. From underwater recordings with hydrophones knocking against stones to loud construction site soundscapes, I tried to let the surrounding enter the intimacy of the handwriting. The sound of paper is then embedded with the water flow, as my body and breathing. The audience is invited to move around the speakers, so their presence and movements in the space creates a single listening experience.
The sound of the water is an ambiguous material, sometimes very present, or very silent, absorbing all the other sounds around. I was touched by its non-obvious presence, and in the sound piece you won’t hear the water all the time. But it’s always around, surrounding the atmosphere. Water sounds can be perceived as « white noise », a noise which includes all the frequencies as a loud block ; but it can also be very delicate and fragile. I want those various musicalities of the water to connect to the emotions I was feeling writing down the four memories.
The exhibition was followed by a soundwalk (15 people), in connection to the installation, with different listening exercises connected to the river. This has been made possible by the curators Kim Anni Bassen and Lourenço Soares with curatorial outreach by Desirée Hieronimus.
You can listen here to a sound example of the content of the piece, but you have to know it’s another experience once you are in the multichannel space, reading/touching the postcards.
The postcards were designed with Maria Peskina.
Mélia Roger 