Author: Xabier Erkizia
Title: La vida de la chispa [The Life of the Spark]
Year: 2020
Technique: stereophonic audio and video installation
Unique work
· Sound work. Duration: 22'22''. It consists of six parts:
1. Generic VITAMIN C. Hydrophone. 2'00''
2. EFERALGÁN 500 mg. Hydrophone and omnidirectional microphones. 3'00''
3. ASPIRIN C 400 mg. Ultrasounds. 3'59''
4. ACITILCISTEINA 600 mg. Omnidirectional microphones. 2'39''
5. PARAFLUTEDÉN 650 mg. Hydrophone and omnidirectional microphones. 2'00''
6. VITACTIV. Hydrophone and omnidirectional microphones, ultrasounds, accelerometer, sinewave. 8'42''
· HD video. Duration: 13'43''. Title: VITACTIV
A project conceived, created and produced by Xabier Erkizia.
Audio and video recordings made at Laia-audiolab and Mik studios, both in Bera (Navarra) during the spring of 2020, except for track 1, also made in 2006 in Bera.
4.500,00 € + VAT
ABOUT THE WORK
“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way”
“A Spoonful of Sugar” Mary Poppins
[...] that carbonated sound, distinctive of the high bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 20th century, is considered today, once declassified and turned into an industrialized sweetened drink, a poison for the lower social classes. In these times when healthiness is becoming one of the most important social obsessions, exclusivity in terms of consumption of non-alcoholic beverages seems to reside in bottled natural waters. The primeval fantasy of the bubble has become a symbol of the over-sugared, of obesity and therefore of possible social problems. The cheapest modern drug sounds like a bubble.
That fssshhhh that meant lightness and elegance begins to sound heavy and ordinary.
Ultimately, Mary Poppins was always right: Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, In a most delightful way.
Click here to read full text by Xabier Erkizia.
VITACTIV, HD video. 13'43''.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Xabier Erkizia (Lesaka, ES, b. 1975)
He works with and on sounds, on ways of listening. His works include musical, sound, radio, installation, intermedia and soundtrack compositions. He also works as a curator for museums, art centres and/or festivals, and for years he has regularly collaborated with various media (especially radio) publishing essays on the culture of listening. During the last decades, his works have been produced and shown all over the world.
He was coordinator of the sound department of the renowned ARTELEKU artistic production centre (2002-2014) and of the international festival ERTZ (2000-2018); he is currently a member of the AUDIO-LAB association.
