Join us on Saturday 26 June for the Vernissage of - Eco Acoustics: Listening To A Changing Environment with sound artist Philip Samartzis.
Too much importance is attached to the writing of music, too much to the formula, the craft: we seek ideas inside ourselves, when in fact they should be sought from outside. We combine, we construct… we do not hear around us the countless sounds of nature, we do not sufficiently appreciate this immensely varied music which nature offers us in such abundance… And there, according to me, is the new way forward.
— Claude Debussy, 1909
As the fields of both sound art and environmentally driven art have gained momentum, and concerns around climate change increased, a number of artists began producing work, which lay at the intersection of these fields, addressing contemporary environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, pollution, sustainability, global environmental justice and climate change, through sound works termed Eco Acoustics.
With an interest in raising a consciousness towards the surrounding Alpine and acoustic environment, the Verbier 3-D Foundation invited sound artist Philip Samartzis to develop a sound walk utilising the practice of Eco Acoustics to consider the importance of listening to WATER.
From the cracking of frozen glacial landscapes to the whisper of melting permafrost, the artist has drawn on his archive of sound recordings from Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and the Bernese Oberland to produce a composition solely of the sounds of water within our changing environment.
During the sound walk different qualities and behaviours of water will reveal themselves, inviting audiences to consider the implications of changes occurring in places seldom seen or heard, yet central to the health and wellbeing of our planet.
The composition is divided into fifteen specific movements designed to be heard while walking through the natural landscape above Verbier between Ruinettes and Croix de Coeur.
The exhibition is curated by Alexa Jeanne Kusber.
Eco Accoustics: Listening to a Changing Environment was realized thanks to the support of the Commune de Bagnes, Musée de Bagnes, Téléverbier, Loterie Romande, Office de Tourisme de Verbier, Australia Council for the Arts, Australian Antarctic Division, Bogong Centre for Sound Culture, Creative Victoria, High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch, Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at the Zurich University of the Arts, RMIT School of Art, Swiss National Science Foundation, Madeleine Paternot, Jean-Edouard van Praet & Tappan Heher, Chalet Ker Praet, Marilynne Geiger and Nicolas Combes.
EVENT DETAILS:
Meet at 10.30am at the Savoleyres lift station.
Expect a 3 hour guided walk with pauses in the direction of Ruinettes.
Drinks and nibbles will be served at the end of the walk at Mouton Noir.
Dress accordingly.
RSVP and more info at kthompson@3-dfoundation.com
