Silent Echoes : Dachstein
Sound artist, highly influenced by Cage's philosophy, the Californian artist Bill Fontana has imagined a sound sculpture which mirrors a highly symbolic place. Silent Echoes makes a hidden scene in Notre-Dame perceptible: the ten bells vibrate permanently. By means of seismic accelerometers—installed on these bells during an acoustic survey of the most famous building site in France—the acoustic image of the cathedral and the imprint of a city are revealed and projected elsewhere.
After having visited the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Fontana's project now settles down in the ice caves on the Dachstein in Austria. Bill Fontana transmits the bells sounds to the ice caves and mirrors them in a duet with the sounds of the melting glacier, an impressive artistic statement on climate change and the fragility of culture. This site-specific duet forms the basis for a “sound bridge” that will be transmitted to exhibition venues in Europe and beyond, supplemented by a video work that documents the melting of the Dachstein glacier in the same way.
The work will be premiered as part of the European Capital of Culture 2024 at the Goiserer Musiktage on the Glasfügel in the ice cave. The project will then be broadcasted in several Austrian institutions.
Bill Fontana Sculpture sonore, commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou
Curated by Wolfgang Schlag and Peter Brugger (co-Curator and Programme Manager Goiserer Musiktage 2024)
Music, Youth and Community Building Program directed by Christian Haselmayr