Red Carpet / Punainen matto

Description of the Red Carpet -sound installation and workshop

(in Finnish below)
Red carpet is an old symbol of power and glory. In a Greek tragedy
Agamemnon, written by Aiskhylos for more than 2000 years ago, the wife of the protagonist encourages her husband to walk on the red carpet to show his heroism after a victorious war. Humble Agamemnon refuses first, but finally walks on the carpet barefoot. In doing so, he assumes part of the glory that belongs to the gods.

This symbol of power converts to a mixture of  installation and workshop at the cinema space of Amos Rex.

This time the wars are won with words. The red carpet talks when you walk on it, and you can choose what it says. As raw material you have fragments from the speeches of human right activists that have influenced the world before and after the year 1968.

Red carpet is a new workshop concept from Soni-adores that will be realized for the first time at Poetry Moon Festival 2018.

Time and place

(Suomeksi alla)
Amos Rex Cinema Space
Mannerheimintie 22-24

Helsinki
20.8.2018 at 4-5 pm

Event info at Runokuu

Punainen matto-äänityöpaja

Punainen matto on ikivanha vallan tai maineen symboli. Yli 2000 vuotta sitten kirjoitetussa, kreikkalaisen Aiskhyloksen Agamemnon-tragediassa päähenkilön vaimo rohkaisee sodassa menestynyttä miestään kävelemään punaisen maton poikki sankaruutensa osoituksena. Vaatimaton Agamemnon kieltäytyy aluksi, mutta kävelee lopulta kuitenkin maton poikki, paljain jaloin. Punaisen maton poikki kulkiessaan hän vie jumalilta voiton kunniaa.

Tämä kunnian symboli levittyy nyt interaktiiviseksi äänitaideteokseksi Amos Rexin elokuvasaliin (Prahan kevät).

Tällä kertaa sodat voitetaan sanoilla. Punainen matto puhuu, kun kävelet sillä, ja voit itse valita, mitä se sinun kävellessäsi sanoo. Materiaalina on fragmentteja maailmaa muuttaneiden ihmisoikeusaktivistien puheista, ennen ja jälkeen vuotta 1968.

Työpajaensi-ilta

Amos Rex -elokuvateatteri
Mannerheimintie 22-24

Helsinki
20.8.2018 klo 16-17 pm
Suositellaan nuorille, aikuisetkin tervetulleita
Tapahtumakokonaisuus Runokuun sivulla

Puhuva tie, laulava talo – Talking road, singing house

The exhibition Puhuva tie, laulava talo (Talking Road, Singing House) at Kanneltalo Gallery 8.3.-1.4.2017 presents multilingual installations made by Alejandro Olarte and Outi Korhonen. These include (UN)REST lullaby installation, Zebra crossing (an installation version of the talking carpet), Satakielipuhelin (multilingual telephone) and Don’t trust the Oracle, an old suitcase that answers to knocking with ’yes’ or’no’ in different languages. All the objects can be touched and played in their own ways. In the exhibition you can hear more than 40 different languages. The exhibition is accesible also for people with wheelchairs.

Opening 
8.3.2017
17-19

Guided tours:

Sat 25.3.2017
13:10, 14:10 and 15:10.
The artists Alejandro Olarte and Outi Korhonen present the exhibition. The duration of each presentation is about 20 min.

kielikerays_Kanneltalo_25.3.2017

(UN)REST Lullaby installation

Alejandro Olarte, Outi Korhonen 2016

(UN)REST is a sound installation consisting of lullabies in different languages that form a shelter where both rest and unrest are present. The structure is composed of cables and small speakers that can be displayed in different formats.

unrest_a_olarte_o_korhonen_compr
Fragment of the installation. Photo and wire drawing: Outi Korhonen

Illusions of safety

Thematically the installation focuses on the universally shared need to provide shelter for a tired child, independently of the circumstances. The aim is to connect our own experiences to those of the others, to notice the similitude of a basic emotion. The melodies, lyrics and the languages of the songs contribute to the construction of a mobile, temporary, or permanent home. Singing can be used to provide an illusion of safety even in moments of the total lack of it.

Collective creation with 25 singers and languages

Most of the singers of the lullabies are people who have arrived to Finland from different countries. The installation includes songs in more than 25 languages.

Singers:
Anna Dantchev (Bulgarian), Ali El Aziz (Arabic), Anna Lumikivi (Skolt Sámi),  Annette Kiener(German), Anette Åkerlund (Russian Roma), Cátia Suomalainen Pedrosa (Portuguese), Emma Raunio (English), Erick Dæhlin (Norwegian), Evija Skuķe (Latvian), Fatou Beye (Wolof ), Grisell Macdonell (Nahuatl), Kitari Mayele (Lingala), Liza Umarova (Chechen), Manuel López (Spanish-Spain), Mari Kalkun (Võru), Marouf Majidi (Persian), Menard Mponda (Swahili), Mirjami Ylinen(Finnish), Natalia Castrillón (Spanish/Colombia), Olesya Skorbilina (Russian), Olesya Zolotowa(Polish), Riham Isaac (Arabic), Ruben Gonzalez (Spanish/ Argentina), Satu Ekman (Finnish), Suado Jama (Somali), Supriya Nagarajan (Hindi), Taika Ilola (Carelian and Finnish), Tristana Ferreyra(Guaraní and Spanish/ Argentina), Troels Strange Lorenzen (Danish), Valisa Krairiksh (Thai)

Waves of single human voices

sketches_unrest_outi_korhonenSonically (UN)REST consists of single human voices singing each one a different lullaby mostly in the mother tongues of the singers, without instruments or other background sounds. The timeline of the sound assembles to waves, starting with one single voice/song and adding more and more voices/songs simultaneously, creating a contradictory emotion of (un)rest, and then falling back to a single song and voice, each time a different one. Thanks to the sound technique that relies on many small speakers, the sound remains local and does not cause sounds in a large area.

Touchable sounds

The installation consists of long copper cables and 24 small speakers at the end of each cable. This format permits the visitor to listen to the individual songs simply by placing his/her ear close to one of the speakers, having thus an intimate experience of listening as is the case of a child listening to a lullaby. In the middle of the space the visitor can listen to the coexistence of the different songs.  The physical form can be modified and adapted to different spaces and forms.

 

On display

homeless-sleepUpcoming:

included in Mennään jo naapuriin -exhibition,
Stoa, Helsinki, 20.2.-24.3.2018

 

 

Past:

Nordic Language Festival, Godsbanen, Aarhus, Denmark 18.-21.9.2017

– MuTe Fest and Global Fest 21.11.-12.12.2016, Musiikkitalo, Helsinki.
”Cable Graffiti” version without the tent structure.

– Kanneltalo 8.3.-1.4.2016Helsinki. Part of exhibition Laulava talo, puhuva tie (Alejandro Olarte, Outi Korhonen), Satakielikuukausi 2017

– March 2016, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki. during Homeland exhibition, Festival of Political photography www.pvf.fi (Displayed as Koditon uni  / Homeless sleep)

– February 2016, Vuotalo, Helsinki. Part of Satakielikuukausi / Month of a Hundred Languages. Exhibition Universaaleja unia

Special thanks to

All the singers who donated their voice and time
Vuotalo
Satakielikuukausi / Multilingual Month
The Finnish Museum of Photography, Festival of Political Photography
Coro Latinoamericano de Helsinki
MuTeFest
Kanneltalo
Nordic Language Coordination