FABLES OF THE WIND: SWARM WELCOME, The old water-tower, Tårngade, Struer, Denmark
Fables of The Wind – Swarm Welcome (2018-19)
Vertical sound sculpture
Composition length: 20 minutes presented on loop
Sound system: 16 speakers, one subwoofer [16.1]
Recordings made with: ambisonic microphone, ultrasound, hydrophones
Installation components:
powerful yellow light, banner presenting image of an insect and the words 'FABLES OF THE WIND _ SWARM WELCOME'
Location: the old water-tower, Tårngade, Struer, Denmark
"Fables of The Wind – Swarm Welcome" is an acoustic monument to the word 'migration.' Maciá’s sound sculpture celebrates crosspollination and comprises voices of migratory winds recorded in different deserts around the world and calls of insect pollinators recorded in the Choco rainforest, Colombia. The phase ‘Swarm Welcome’ of the title refers to the beauty of crosspollination.
The artist travelled to deserts across the globe to record winds using ambisonic microphones for this work. Most recently he went to the Atacama Desert in Chile to record a special commission for the composition presented in Struer. Other locations have been the Chihuahua Desert straddling the US / Mexico border, Bisti/DeNa-Zin Wilderness and White Sands in New Mexico, the Great Sand Dunes in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, and the tundra of Svalbard in the Arctic.
Each migratory wind has its own voice, its own fables, and a unique booming sound as it moves through the desert sand or, in the case of the Artic, ice. Desert winds form the first part of this two-movement composition; the second is formed from calls of insects who pollinate flowers. Two-thirds of all species on Earth are insects, voiceless creatures who make themselves heard by vibrating their legs and wings. In 2018 Maciá recorded these sounds in the Choco rainforest on the Pacific coast of Colombia, his country of birth.
"Fables of The Wind – Swarm Welcome" (2018-19) focuses on the fine line dividing listening and hearing. When we listen, rather than simply hear, we pay full attention and process information. What happens when we acoustically look to the word ‘migration’? Can this undo the hijacking of this term by dog-whistle politics? ‘Swarm’ usually refers to the displacement of insects in groups. In our current disturbing times 'swarm' has been used to describe humans as if they are a plague. Ironically this appropriation is taking place while swarming insects are disappearing in Europe and the United States in large numbers. We desperately need them to avert catastrophe. It is difficult to imagine the world without insects and without their great contribution as the pollination of flowers and cross-pollination in all its meanings.
In Struer, Maciá’s vertical sound-sculpture is made of 16 speakers and 1 subwoofer placed in an ascendant spiral form inside a functional water tower. At the entrance of the building is a banner with the title of the work; inside a yellow light warms the distinct architecture.
Maciá says: “It is clear for me as an artist that my work cannot solve social and political problems. I can only create spaces for thoughts and raise new questions with the simple intention of reaching new answers. I am interested in expanding the sense of sculpture into acoustic volumes. Maybe this can change perception and encourage us to think more globally in an echo of the intricate migratory winds that embrace our planet. I want to affirm the importance of insects and their symbiosis with plants for human existence and for the environment generally. If the world follows its current trajectory, cross-pollination, in both intellectual and biological terms, may soon disappear, with catastrophic consequences.”