Alessandra Eramo Contemplation on Sarmento River (Sound performance and video) Installation & Performance — Kleiner Wasserspeicher — Fri 9/28/18 — 8pm  

Alessandra Eramo reconstructs the sound of a dry river using her singing voice and the movement of water and stones. The presence/absence of water becomes a metaphor for the mass emigration of southern Italians. The Sarmento,running through the region of Basilicata, is a ›fiumara‹or rivulet, which typically flows through southern Italy’s mountainside. Although flowing with abundant water during the winter months they usually run dry during summer, the riverbeds changing into an immense grey expanse of stones.

Recent decades of human intervention have significantly changed their natural equilibrium and their soundscapes. Today these watercourses are transient, just like the human desert left behind by the inhabitants when they left this region in search of a better life. The sound of the absence of water, of stones, broom flowers, bird song and valley stories is the artist’s contemplation on the Sarmento River, where she spent part of her childhood with her grandmother. The video and performance create a sonic scenario as a ritual of hope for the future of the river.

 

Broom flowers video footage in Val Sarmento: Lucrezia Lidia Fabiani
Stories from Val Sarmento: Mariangela Fabiani, Grazia Ferrara, Caterina D’Agostino
Video editing advisors: Maria Iorio, Raphaël Cuomo
Video and Field Recording assistent: Wendelin Büchler

 

Alessandra Eramo (IT) is a Berlin-based artist who creates performative works using voice, sound, text and visual media, exploring latent acoustic territories of the human voice and noise as socio-political material. www.ezramo.com

Alessandra Eramo