Silenced

The silence materializes as a silencing,
which is to say there is no peace here.
It performs a constant muzzling.
(Santiago Sierra)

The scream is the expulsion of an unbearable,
impossible internal polarization
between life’s force and death’s negation,
simultaneously signifying and simulating creation and destruction.
(Allen Weiss)

Can you really listen to the sound of silence? Can you eliminate these unwanted sounds, these interferences, these taken-for-granted frequencies, these ubiquitous vibrations, to get to that pure state of silence? And if you do, could you shut down the beating of your heart in that rhythmic notion which will forever be inside you? Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

Can we find a private space in a public domain? What happens if we stand in the street, we could see a lot of movements that are supposed to produce noises but we cannot hear them – only the silence?

Performance

Silenced is an interactive sound and video performance created for one spectator at time.
Reflecting on how noises and sounds can affect our daily life in the city outside, the performance wonders how sound can transform the perception of reality, influencing deeply and directly the behaviour of humans.
Which is the people’s reaction in front of the pressing and growing sonic bombing in their everyday? Do they silence and why? Or are they silenced and by what?
Conceived in the city of Beirut which is affected by many sounds and noises, the performance addresses to any individual living in contemporary society, analysing how silence can affect the spectators’ perception of their surrounding environment and chaotic lives.

The performer invites one spectator at time to wear some cancelling noises headphones, standing in front of her. On the wall behind her, a video is projected.
Through her live voice, the performer leads the spectator inside her dream, where they suppose to stand together in the middle of traffic without any sound. The performance and what it recalls intends to provoke a reaction in the spectator, who will choose in its end to scream or take his silence forever.
The spectator’s active or stifled scream represents the impossibility to scream in front of all noises coming from the outside world, which affect our daily life without consciousness.

Silenced was presented inside InMediasRes exhibition at Station in Beirut – April 2014.
InMediasRes website: http://inmediasres-lb.com

Silenced _ teaser (49”)