On Connection Installation Collaborative Project with multimedia artist Valentina Berthelon
"On Connection" explores speculative approaches to human-nature relationships, shaping space to feel and tune in with our emotional states and our environment. We invite the participant to embark on a multi-sensory experience, to connect with the metaphor of the Tree as Axis Mundi. This symbol is found in many different cultures around the world and represents a link between the spiritual and physical worlds.
Combining science fiction elements, symbols, and soundscapes a ritualistic experience is created. In this alternative world, we find a tree made out of electric wires. The tree is a symbolic portal to access the common consciousness and knowledge stored in its body and electric brunches, which resembles the blood vessel systems of the human body as well as technologically complex systems like the internet network. Hybrid mythological beings will embody diverse perspectives of the human and non-human worlds, developing a connecting link to greater cycles of the universe. The sound journey incorporates voices and ancestral live instruments to guide us through an immersive experience, impacting our senses through specific frequencies and stimulating inner vision.
Description of the audiovisual performance On Connection can also be presented as an audiovisual performance in which Flora Päär will hold an ambient sound performance to interact with the participants while Valentina will project on real time selected video scenes of the virtual world.
In the frame of a respectful and transcultural ritual, the sound is intended to be perceived as a vector that allows us to hear the "whispers of the gods", the melody that relieves our souls from doubts and brings answers to our striving to pursue to bring healing and coherence to the world we live in. Based on vibrational medicine principles and performed with the support of acoustic instruments, such as Tibetan bowls, chimes, shamanic drums, and rattles, the sound meditation offers the listeners a tool to drift into an imaginative state, to connect to the inner wisdom, promoting the research of solutions with a more organic and sensitive approach. By entering a trance-like state, the sound performer, connects with the "voice" of the tree as archetype, channeling the secret encoded information stored in the flow of its vital force, the rustling of its leaves in the wind, the silent growth of its branches and roots. Subtle energies are translated into sounds and vocalizations, delivering a message to the world, stimulating inner vision and perception.