INTRO
“What does the word ‘island’ mean to you?” Localize Festival asked in 2019 (Berlin Art Link). On the Freundschaftsinsel, Potsdam's island park, XENORAMA answered in August 2019 with voices: A SECRET ARCHIPELAGO, an audio book installation.
Beneath the pergola of the Botanical Garden, eighteen speakers recited poems, literary excerpts and personal stories in eight languages, spread over five lines of loudspeakers, with simultaneous German translation. Between the voices, violin, Uilleann pipes and guitar added instrumental textures (Xenorama).
Highlights
18 voices in 8 languages
Portraits showing only the back of the head
Violin and Uilleann pipes between voices
KNOWN BY VOICE
The speakers had never met. Each could recognise a partner, from another language and background, only by the sound of the voice; together they formed what XENORAMA called “an archipelago of distinct individual voices”.
Visitors left with two keepsakes: laminated portrait sheets that showed only the backs of the speakers' heads, and a printed book of the texts.
