The serpent is a present figure in Camila Sposati’s artistic exploration of instruments. Its form appears in her objects, echoing the artist’s interest in the role of serpents in indigenous cosmologies of northern Brazil, as well as a 16th century musical instrument in the same form which was intended to exude strength and power. Intertwined with this research is the question of how serpents hear.
Serpents pick up sounds through vibration; they “listen” with their bodies. In a live radio transmission from the ifa Gallery Berlin, we’ll follow the wave-like figure of the serpent into Sposati’s investigations, while bringing them into dialogue with wax cylinder recordings from the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, different approaches to listening through the body–as well as the medium of radio itself.
With Camila Sposati, Kate Donovan, Marcelo Rezende, and Annika Niemann, along with various scientific and cultural experts. In cooperation with CoLaboRadio / Archipel Stations Community Radio / Freie Radios Berlin-Brandenburg.
Listen to the “The Serpent and the Echo” on our soundcloud:
