The music of Merche Blasco evokes a world where contradictions are not resolved but peacefully co-exist; where sounds do not represent anything but are significant in their own right—and where listening is just as important as what is heard. For the Spanish-born musician, listening is where it all begins. Blasco’s most recent, three-act work, Vibrant Strata (2021), which she presented at The Shed in Manhattan, New York, was also preceded by an intensive listening process. This began, in her customary manner, with an exploration of the acoustic surroundings in the modern art complex, during which she used self-built antennae to detect electromagnetic waves that are imperceptible to the human ear.
In Act 1 of Vibrant Strata, this exploratory process becomes part of the performance. A diffuse electrical sound, reminiscent of the interference produced when a cellphone comes near a loudspeaker, is the leitmotif with which Blasco’s musical collaborators interact. The second and third acts also live off interaction. In Act 2, Blasco amplifies the vibrations of a 3D printer with mini-antennae worn on her fingers, and in the third and final act, dancer Miriam Parker moves through the space, using two wearable instruments to communicate physically and acoustically with the surroundings.
Vibrant Strata is a good example of what drives Blasco’s practice; she examines the extent to which ideologies are embedded in technologies—a topic she is currently researching for her PhD—and seeks to establish a new relationship between human and non-human worlds. She has been constructing a series of devices to not only render the imperceptible energies of everyday life audible, but to interact with them, creating a world where things and people enter into new, non-hierarchical relationships.
Common Ground: Merche Blasco / Jiyoung Yoon / Grazyna Roguski
Thursday, 1.6.2023 | Doors 19:00 | Starts 19:00 CET
daadgalerie | Oranienstraße 161 in 10969 Berlin
