A•PER•TUR – sound installation

By capturing the centuries old sounds engraved in different parts of her surroundings and transposing them into another geography and temporality through her voice, Ece Canli intends to evoke a liminal space where an aperture, transition and reconciliation are possible between past and present, inside and outside, guilt and innocence, trauma and healing. It is a quest for possibilities of creating transient places to reimagine our collective consciousness, justice, bodies and futures beyond physical and mental walls.

The sound installation is a four-channel audio composition amplified by four monitors which aim to create an immersive yet fragmented soundscape. Each speaker is the source of a different mnemonic sound, echoing specific natural and artificial sources that are shared across geographies and generations. Different sound elements bring the recordings of inner and outer parts of the body, including the underground, water, air and walls, as well as the human voice, respirations and words, each of which is to be captured by geophones, hydrophones, contact microphones, electromagnetic listening devices and microphones respectively.

The four-channel audio, with a duration of 13 minutes, was composed by two panned stereo sound pieces. Two of the monitors were placed on top of the stairs, while the other two were on the lowest part preparing the visitors to climb the stairs and accompanying them towards the terrace – the light. The sound accompanying the process of passing through this space, where was once a site of an execution and confinement and now of a pleasing experience of reaching the light, was to de-orientate the eyes of the visitor to together rethink “where to look”, maybe to take time on this very spot to contemplate on what memories these sounds of different spaces and species evoke. Last but not least, it was also an invitation to listen to the meditated question embedded in this sound piece: What is to forget the atrocities that took place once “here and now” if they are only transposed to “elsewhere” we are part of? If we take for granted that art and architecture are transformative, so shall be the justice.

Text and sound installation: Ece Canli

Yedikule Map

Published on 28-04-2023

To know more: A•PER•TUR: A sonic aisle through time, space and justice-making

Ficheiros audio