Bergen senter for elektronisk kunst

http://www.albanianpavilion.com/2016/

I have left you the mountain presents ten new texts written by contemporary writers and thinkers on the architecture of displacement. These texts have been set to music and sung by some of the last remaining groups of Albanian iso-polyphonic singers, an art form now protected as “intangible cultural heritage” by UNESCO.

A living art form in step with generations of migration and transition, “singing migration” has been a core part of processing departure, longing, and return. The Albanian Pavilion is a space of collective listening, of “individuals in company.”

I Have Left You The Mountain initiates a conversation about the urbanism of displacement, projecting the Albanian case onto an international stage, with the express intention to transmit that dialogue and its speculations back into Albania.

Photo: Špela Volčič.

On the technical realisation

Performances have been captured as eight channel audio recordings with separate channels for each voice. Using eight speakers at the pavilion each of the voices is reproduced individually. Playback is controlled by a vinyl record player playing a special vinyl record containing timecode information. A Max patch interprets this information in order to control playback of the 8 channel tracks.

Commissioner
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania

Curators
Simon Battisti
Leah Whitman-Salkin
Åbäke

Sound design and technical consultation
Peter Meanwell
Trond Lossius

Furniture design
Max Lamb

Pavilion construction
Luigi D’Oro & Arguzia S.r.l.

Location
Arsenale (Room 5), Venice

Sponsors
Meyer Sound
BEK
Sigal Uniqa
Spring
AlbaRent
Savatours