Migratory Dreams - Suenos Migratorios, sound recordings of an improvisatory online performance event using spoken voice and pre-recorded sounds that took place between two Colombian communities.
In partnership with CRiSAP - Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice from the University of the Arts London - LCC, Furtherfield Gallery is pleased to present Migratory Dreams – Sueños Migratorios, sound recordings of an improvisatory online performance event using spoken voice and pre-recorded sounds that took place between two Colombian communities in London (UK) and Bogota (CO) in August 2012.
About the project
When we migrate, our perception of space expands, as we experience new territories and cultures; sometimes this perception can be diminished if we lack forms of expression to engage fully in the new place. In our dreams, feelings are expressed unconsciously, offering a free and mysterious encounter with spaces we long for, and also with spaces that we have not yet encountered in our waking reality. Dreams become a metaphor and vehicle of our migrations.
The exhibition Migratory Dreams – Sueños Migratorios invites us to listen to eight dreams that were shared in an improvisatory sound performance via the Internet, between Colombians living in London and Colombians living in Bogotá, using spoken voice and pre-recorded sounds. The performance explored the sound space that is created in-between the two locations, as well as the feelings associated with different experiences of migration, and was manifested through Deep Listening practice and dreamwork.
Resonating through voice in an in-between space, being heard on the other side of the world, about feelings left by the experience of re-location or dislocation, opens our sense of being and our multidimensional condition. Perception of location is sometimes as volatile as the sense of reality, and as clear and structured as the dream reality can be.
The performances were part of Networked Migrations, a practice-based research project which explored feelings of displacement and being in the ‘in-between' of migrants communities.
Dreamers and performers London/ Soñadores y performers Londres: Amaru, Nelly, Sebastián, Steve Cárdenas Mosquera
Dreamers and performers Bogotá/ Soñadores y performers en Bogotá: Diana María Restrepo, Joela, Sandra Miranda Pattin, Tzitzi Barrantes
Programmer Max Interface/ Programador Max Interface: Emmett Glynn
Venues: Resonance FM (London), Plataforma Bogotá (Bogotá)
Collaborators in the performance: Deep Listening Institute (Kingston-NY), Plataforma Bogotá (Colombia), Resonance FM (London)
About the Artist
Ximena Alarcón
Ximena Alarcón is an artist who engages in listening to migratory spaces and connecting this to individual and collective memories. Her practice has involved ethnography, deep listening, and sonic improvisation, intertwined with the creative use of Internet multimedia technologies. She is interested in working interstitial or ‘in-between’ spaces where borders become diffused, such as underground transport systems, dreams, and the ‘in-between’ space in the context of migration.
She completed a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation at De Montfort University and was awarded with The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship 2007-2009 to develop “Sounding Underground” at the Institute of Creative Technologies. Since October 2011, she has been working as a Research Fellow at CRiSAP - Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice from the University of the Arts London - LCC, developing her project “Networked Migrations – listening to and performing the in-between space”.
More information: http://networkedmigrations.wordpress.com/
Saturday 02 March 2013, 12-4pm
Furtherfield Gallery
McKenzie Pavilion, Finsbury Park, London
Hours: Thursday to Saturday 12 noon - 3pm
Free Admission