'Concrete' (excerpt)
by Jorge Solís Arenazas, translation by Robin Myers
How can we recover what we interpret as ephemeral, residual, and random in order to problematize what we consider immobile, central, and definitive?
By exploring the acoustic properties of specific sites, Lorena Mal counseled by acoustic physicists and sound engineers, investigates the paths followed by sound matter; the angles it traces as it travels; the ranges of pressure it applies; and the variations it undergoes in response to the shapes of the walls, ceilings, floors, and so forth. Finally, she locates the points where sound density intensifies and grows more concentrated. Analyzing this mass of data allows us to understand the appearance and features of the space in question. At the same time, and even more importantly, it reveals the space’s vulnerable areas, the zones of greatest susceptibility to alteration by sound’s unpredictable path.
Concrete Acoustics doesn’t seek to obtain the space’s auditory narrative, nor does it intend to represent that narrative via particular aesthetic parameters. What it does, rather, is intervene in the space, exacerbating its characteristics so that they may redefine the conception of the architectural site. It obliges the space to take risks, to shatter its traditional hierarchical logic, to de-center its interpretation from materials, functions, and other traditional reference points.
The sculptural aspect of the installation is by no means scenographic; it directly engages in the phenomenon it questions. Not only does it expose the form of the construction; it also works to reformulate its very meaning. At no point does it seek to provide a scaled recreation or to amplify the occurrences produced there. Quite the contrary: it operates on a literal, physical, immediate level, eliminating the distances between the listener/observer and what he or she perceives (a perception, incidentally, that always exists on the borderline).
Concrete Acoustics operates along the borderline of the perceptible, and we must remain in silence in order to listen.