Fatma Bucak Numbing silence covers us like fine dust

dimensioni variabili

Soil is the “living, breathing skin of the Earth.”* It supports nearly all life on earth’s land surface and is therefore of critical importance for ecosystems and humanity. The immersive installation Numbing silence covers us like fine dust draws attention to soil desertification after high-intensity wildfires. While some fires can be beneficial for soil, high-intensity fires destroy soil’s nutrients, and it can take decades to regenerate scorched earth. Remarkably, the ash produced by fires is often full of nutrients and helps with soil restoration. For this work, the artist visited forests in Tunceli, a Kurdish-majority province in Eastern Anatolia, after they were decimated by wildfires last summer. In the 1990s, Tunceli suffered environmental destruction as a result of violent conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). While there, she gathered ashes and soil for this immersive installation reminiscent of a cut-out slice of a mountain. It simultaneously activates he viewer’s senses of smell, sight, and sound, putting them in touch with a complex geography thousands of kilometres away. Bucak also recorded the sound of the unproductive soil throughout the area with microphones submerged underground to pick up the sounds of emptiness that reverberate through barren earth. These recordings were then amplified and incorporated into a minimal composition developed with the composer Bahar Royaee. Enveloping the entire space of the installation, the composition actualizes the silence and lifelessness that permeates burned forests. * William Bryant Logan.

5493

No

MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna

side specific multi channel sound installation with: transducer speakers (under the mountain), hanging speakers (in every corner of the exhibition space)

proprietà Ente Locale - Premio Italian Council 2020 (IX edizione)

Installation