isa suarez installations, à trouble sens the balde
I séverine dabadie, philippe laplace, lowell guéthary Having recorded city-sounds, natural sounds and testimonies throughout the Basque Country and especially at Hendaye Abbey, Isa Suarez has come up with an interesting view of the sensations caused by these everyday noises. She later gathered together bits and pieces from scientist, astronomer, explorer and linguist Antoine D´Abbadie’s home and filmed the sea. She wanted to investigate the realities and illusions created by places, situations, meetings and everyday happenings, and in order to do so, she takes a close look at the surroundings, timing and feelings inspired by the above. These different installations offer the viewer-listener an intimate, poetic and abstract journey between reality and illusion. The stories, sounds, video clips and the different objects that make up the installations will take the visitor to familiar, imaginary and far off places.
1-Transit vitae sicut fumus...
The above words can be read on one of the walls of the palace built by Antoine D´Abbadie, of Basque-Irish stock, in Hendaye... Life passes by like a wisp of smoke. If we take a closer look at D´Abbadie’s passion for alchemy, we’ll begin to here many voices that tell us of his life in books and salty seascapes...
2- Local sailors
The Basques and the sea. A video projection of where the sea meets the skyline. The place where stories of sailors past and present meet...
The sailor’s fate
Is to end up down in the sea
His ultimate destiny
The sad news shall reach his home
(From the anonymous Itsassoco Perillac – “The dangers of the seas” verses from the end of the 17th Century)
3-Voices of the night
You sit down in the dark and suddenly, we here an electro-acoustic composition of sounds from the Abbey, nature and everyday life in the Basque Country. Thanks to the sound, this black chaos makes some sense. The rhythm guides us through the dark...
“Oh Charmed Sound
That Hoverest Around
Oh Voices of the Night
Sing low! Sing low! Sing low!”
The above was taken from a part of a poem written on one of the columns in the livingroom in the abbey (taken from the collection
of poems called “Syren”).
Robert Buchanan was an scotish poet from the victorian ages.
4- Interactive installations in Hendaye.
There are interactive installations at two shops in Hendaye: the perfumery “Colette” and “Euskal Harategia” (“Boucherie Charcuterie Basquaise”). When you go into the shops, you get to here public, natural and familiar sounds taken completely out of their natural context, instead of the typical doorbell sounds that we are used to. Sounds from the sea, the mooing of a cow...
1-Transit vitae sicut fumus...
The above words can be read on one of the walls of the palace built by Antoine D´Abbadie, of Basque-Irish stock, in Hendaye... Life passes by like a wisp of smoke. If we take a closer look at D´Abbadie’s passion for alchemy, we’ll begin to here many voices that tell us of his life in books and salty seascapes...
2- Local sailors
The Basques and the sea. A video projection of where the sea meets the skyline. The place where stories of sailors past and present meet...
The sailor’s fate
Is to end up down in the sea
His ultimate destiny
The sad news shall reach his home
(From the anonymous Itsassoco Perillac – “The dangers of the seas” verses from the end of the 17th Century)
3-Voices of the night
You sit down in the dark and suddenly, we here an electro-acoustic composition of sounds from the Abbey, nature and everyday life in the Basque Country. Thanks to the sound, this black chaos makes some sense. The rhythm guides us through the dark...
“Oh Charmed Sound
That Hoverest Around
Oh Voices of the Night
Sing low! Sing low! Sing low!”
The above was taken from a part of a poem written on one of the columns in the livingroom in the abbey (taken from the collection
of poems called “Syren”).
Robert Buchanan was an scotish poet from the victorian ages.
4- Interactive installations in Hendaye.
There are interactive installations at two shops in Hendaye: the perfumery “Colette” and “Euskal Harategia” (“Boucherie Charcuterie Basquaise”). When you go into the shops, you get to here public, natural and familiar sounds taken completely out of their natural context, instead of the typical doorbell sounds that we are used to. Sounds from the sea, the mooing of a cow...
