FACADE, a soundwalk by ROSA VAN GOUDOEVER
Rosa van Goudoever: “To my left, there are cars. In front of me: the sidewalk. At the corner of the sidewalk stands a traffic sign. The traffic sign is gray in the back. It is basically a stick, with a round shape and a rectangular shape below that are hung on it. On top hang two forms, rotated a quarter turn, but I can not see them so well”.
Façade is a sound walk in and around the Jan Evertsenstraat, wherein a voice directs the gaze and pace of the walking audience. Façade is part of the art route Lijdensweg West in which the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross are explored from an artistic perspective by contemporary artist. Artworks ranging from fragrance art to paintings are placed in and around the streets of Amsterdam West.
In Façade the directing voice is compelling though friendly. It tells the audience when to stop and where to watch. As the participants walk, the pace of everyday life is slowed down. The audience is told to look and turn their bodies, resulting in a choreography of movements aimed to observe the surroundings more closely.
The sounds used in Façade are binaurally recorded ambient sounds. Through headphones these sounds are played on the same spot where they were recorded. Thus they enhance the physical properties of the space in which the listener walks. You can hear the bare walls of the houses extra bare, the heavy traffic in a street is extra heavy. Also, the sounds mark a place in time. Boys walking by in the past are perceived as to pass by in this very moment. In this way the sound walk grinds the past and present against each other.
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With Façade I want to make the listeners alert to the present as well as to their perception. What is perceived as important isn’t always meaningful and vice versa. I want to expose the various meanings that people attach to their environment. And I want to show how these meanings originate in our perception. All these different perceptions can coexist without conflict within my sound walks.
Until now I made a sound walk in a city park, a museum, a train, a nature reserve, an office building, another city park and two residential areas. By slowing down the pace and putting emphasis on the perception of the space, I put the attention to details that, according to me, define these places. Through the medium of the sound walk, room is created for funny coincidences and unexpected beauty. The listener has space to react, to compare his / her observations with mine.
The Soundwalk is on show untill March 30th 2013, the sound walk is available at café Bar Baarsch, Jan Evertsenstraat 91, Amsterdam. Special event: the sound walk in company of the maker the 29th and 30th of March, start:16.00hr. Reservations: info@lijdenswegwest.nl
www.lijdenswegwest.nl
www.rosavangoudoever.com