Question: How can I turn every resident and every visitor to the municipality into active listening agents? Answer: through a sound map that each individual experiences their own sensations through the sounds they perceive. Both one and the other were formulated by Alicante artist Carlos Izquierdo, who once again worked with the sound field within. “Mergers” projectIVAM aims to bring art to the Route 99 towns of less than 100 inhabitants in the Community of Valencia.
if he did it in 2021 Ayodar’s Resources it worked now higuerasa municipality of Castellón, with “many natural resources” Sierra de Espadan Natural Park. Izquierdo, a sound artist and composer, says if seeing this sight is meaningful to the eye, “imagine for the ear.” links with region, identity and memory“.
IVAM contacted him and asked him to make an artistic proposal for the municipality. He first met with the mayor and did a one-week residency there in February. He lived, traveled and got to know Higueras until he defined and implemented his project. “I learned culture, customs, uses, places, environment, social and demographic situation. From there I started building the project and when I majored I already had a clear idea of what to develop”.
During that week, countless recordings at different listening points which the artist finds more important, “some a few minutes, others hours”. It’s about “going somewhere, listening, testing, placing the microphones, waiting… a whole process”.
At this point the municipality already had audio recordings from a unique and specific moment. “In my recordings, importance is not as important as suggesting it. people are the ones who do their own listening“.
two actions
The result is defined in two actions. On the one handa solid walk with listening points to explore and experiment with a brochure where residents or visitors can track the points where Izquierdo saves the recordings. And on the other side, a physical part, an auditory bugle or trumpet used to help people with hearing loss. “It’s a symbolic, poetic and at the same time functional object that I created as an activation piece to draw attention for you to come closer and try, but also to reflect on concentration to learn to listen better.”
brochures containing QR code They can be taken from the city bar La Cantina del Rullo to access the sound archive compiled by the artist, and the auditory trumpet is placed next to the Plaza de la Iglesia.
will be in may Presentation of the project to the neighbors. “They show a quirk at first because they take an artist with his work to a quiet municipality with very established rhythms, but what I love about this proposal is that it’s not always invasive or offensive to the residents. they absorb it as something valuable”.
IVAM collects all realized projects on its website and mediation and training program «so that jobs continue to be visited and active».