SEMI SILENT

Definiri ale feminității și ale rolului feminin înăuntrul și în afara familiei/ Defining femininity and the female role within and outside the family

An employee from the castle said: "Hurry up, they are coming! Gather all your belongings and run!" By the time they exit the door, they were caught on the stairs by the communists. It was a scam. They took all their suitcases with valuable things and given a part of their amusement two bags, 1 kg of rotten tomatoes and 1 kg of rotten potatoes. Countesse Mocioni and her son, Bubi. They were dragged and forced to work in Sântuhalm, Hunedoara Department, Romania. It was February 1949. Bubi was beaten drastically only in his head, and went to a coma. He learnt to speak again one year later, at the age of 29.

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Simina Oprescu is composing since 2012, interested in the possibilities of sound’s integration in the visual mediums and the capacity of sound to change radically the understanding of the image: „In the Beginning was the Sound”. Simina studied photography and video art at the Arts University in Bucharest and one year in the electroacoustic composition department at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium.

Composition for piano (Luca), violins (a choir), flute (a piano), double bass (electrical wires), trumpet (some tape) and a solitary violin.

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Anamaria Pravicencu studied drawing and sculpture, with an interest for sound installation. Since 2006 she’s in charge with the artistic direction of Jumătatea plină, promoting author comics and sonic and musical experiment (Sâmbăta sonoră) through constant and distinct programs, and she keeps producing sound work.

Recording, editing and mixing by Anamaria Pravicencu

Produced by SEMI SILENT

Absence is an autobiographical sound piece, a reflection on the recorded past and my relationship with my parents, while one of them is away from home.

It is a starting point in a discussion about the choices that we make when we decide what moments we want to keep for the future.

Plato Time explores the relation of the philosofical ideas with the artistic and personal expression. The voice is used as a vehicle for the platonician text as well as for the „coral” comment.

Piece created for the sound writing workshop directed by Charo Calvo organized within HER VOICE project, September 2017.

Mi-am dorit să ajung în 2017 la Bienală pentru a păstra legătura cu limbajul contemporan al artei. Vizita s-a transformat într-un dialog cu mine însămi, contopindu-se observaţia asupra artei şi semnificaţia afectivă. Mi-am devenit ghid personal şi mi-am acceptat inconsistenţa în judecarea anumitor lucrări, spunându-mi că e important să găsesc legătura subtilă, acea nevoie de a participa la actul artistic, în orice formă ar veni ea. Lipsită de orice îndatorire socială – relaţia cu presa, lumea artei, relaţii sociale etc etc – mi-am căutat drumul meu în interiorul pavilioanelor. Am transpus această experienţă într-un colaj radio, mizând încă o dată pe puterea acestui mediu de a crea o stare de intimitate şi sinceritate cu cel care ascultă.

Five women artists living in Brussels; all raised in several languages; each one from a different cultural background. They tell, in their mother tongue, a vital moment, an intense sensorial experience, that left a physical imprint. One of them is not telling the truth though. How to transmit those experiences only through language when their words are translated, albeit ‘properly’ by another woman?

It was a winter day in Madrid. I took the express train “Puerta del Sol” to Brussels. At that time, Hendeva was the last station for our trains. The Spanish tracks and the French tracks were not the same width. A little defensive measure taken by Franco’s government. We got out of the train, suitcase in one hand, the other gripping our passport. In the middle of the night we crossed this space, open to the sky, fenced in with barbed wire, ‘tierra de nadie’ (“no man’s land”). On the other side, was waiting for me at least 26 years of another life and I thought that I could already make it out. That day, I was only 26. But before that day, there had been other days, thousands of days, that I can still hear…

She lives with her violent man in a gas station situated in a provincial road. It is a summer day. As usual she cooks and cleans and listen to her husband small talk and to the cars passing by. In the mean time, her thoughts take flight out of that painful routine, a way of surviving. By the time a storm breaks, she does not feel anymore the difference between reality and fantasy, till her husband punch to the face brings her back to normal.

În ianuarie 2017, Patrick Tubin McGinley, creatorul platformei Framewok Radio, a fost invitatul Radiodifuziunea Română și Maria Balabaș pentru contribuția românească la Art’s Birthday (17 ianuarie), program organizat de European Brodcasting Union. SEMI / SILENT l-a invitat să susțină un atelier de creație sonoră narativă non-verbală pentru un grup de 12 artiști sonori, muzicieni, performeri, ingineri de sunet, realizatori de film și jurnaliști. Rezultatul atelierului a fost montat în formatul Framework Radio și poate fi ascultat pe ambele platforme.