Voices of Community – Artistic Residency in Barcelona
The RISE UP Project hosted a very special meeting in Barcelona this May. From the 22nd to the 29th, we celebrated the Voices of Community Residency with
artists from the 5 communities our project focuses on. Marina Cuito (Aranese), Brett Hiiob (Seto), Fiona O’Cleirigh (Cornish), Mario Csenar (Burgenland Croat) and Daniela Stoica (Aromanian) met in Barcelona and worked on voice creations in their own minoritised languages.
On May 22nd, we visited Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius (http://www.tradicionarius.cat/), an artistic center dedicated to traditional arts and culture. Carol Duran, the artistic director, welcomed us, showed us the facilities and talked us through their work and aims. Afterwards, we had dinner while we were listening to a “Germans Martorell” concert during the concert cycle “La taverna del CAT”.
Over the next few days, we had a workshop with Felicia Touvenot from YEN, in which we talked about what it is like to come from a minoritised culture and work within a minoritised language. We also shared our creativity experiences with Aranese singer-songwriter Alidé Sans.
While they were in the city, the artists were working on their individual projects, which consisted of new works created by them, and also interpretations of their traditional culture. Amongst them there are tales and songs inspired by their native landscapes and folk stories. The leitmotiv between all of them is, however, birds. Last but not least, the artists composed Woodpeckers, a common piece mixing their languages and sounds of nature.
A very important part of the Voices of Community project was to produce sound materials for Kieli, a digital art piece co-created by the digital artist Ferran Belda and the
curator Alejandro Martin. This work reflects on the minoritised languages and their evolution through transfrontier contact. The linguistic concepts that Kieli works with were suggested by the five Voices of Community artists. Kieli was installed on Sonar + D 2024, and the visitors could interact with it and get to know the minoritised languages at the core of RISE UP. Also, the art installation generated many informal conversations around the topic of languages in danger and identity experiences.
Most of the sound materials produced during the Voices of Community residence were recorded at the Eurecat studios, where we met with a very kind, understanding and
professional technician. Having the chance to work in such an environment was a great experience for all of us.
Right at the end of the residency, on May 29th, we visited Primavera Pro, a very important music industry event linked to the Primavera Sound Festival. There, we learnt about the latest innovations in the music industry, legislation and AI.
The credits related to Voices of Community and Kieli are the following:
Kieli
· Ferran Belda: Digital artist
· Alejandro Martin: curator & co-author of the project
· Pere Calopa Piedra: Software engineer
· Src.phag: Graphic Designer
RISE UP – Voices of Community
· Artists:
o Fiona O’Cleirigh
o Marina Cuito
o Mario Csenar
o Brett Hiiob
o Daniela Stoica
· Maika Casalí: Voices of Community Residency’s coordinator and music producer
· Collaborators: Alidé Sans, Felicia Touvenot
· RISE UP Consortium
· European Union
· Recorded at the Eurecat recording studio
Author: Maika Casali
Keywords
#VoicesofCommunity, Aranese, Aromanian, Burgenland Croatian, Cornish, Seto, minoritised language, art, culture, music
