Brass, surface transducers, 6-channel sound, 60′ loop, 100×600, 2022

A six-metre brass sculpture functions as a musical instrument. Every sound passing through it is a human voice: recordings of Armenian incantations in Ṙuštuni, a secret language of the felt-makers of Moks, documented in the nineteenth century. The voices, electronically modified, are transmitted through the brass body, which amplifies, distorts, and filters them, with the bent surface adding its own plate reverb and resonances. The instrument treats resonance as what remains of a voice after it disappears.

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Co-commissioned by Armenia Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, CTM Festival Berlin, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius.

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