Artist: Aline Bouvy
Exhibition title: As Sirens Rise and Fall
Venue: Kunsthal Gent, Ghent, Belgium
Date: January 29 – March 14, 2021
Photography: Michiel De Cleene / courtesy the artist and Kunsthal Gent
As Sirens Rise and Fall
An installation by Aline Bouvy
in collaboration with Pierre Dozin and Julien Bouille
Challenging the police logo
Dabbing the forehead with wonder oil
Weaving the spider web
Being afraid of your number
Rolling naked in yoghurt
Building a hut with pillows
Parterre – down-to-earth detox
-Emeline Depas
One wonders why there are so few symphonies written in F sharp minor. Could it be because of the melancholic sound, the haunting eloquence of that key, the obscure bitterness but also intense passion that resounds through it? The plaintive and haunting song of the tempting mermaids, figures of the nourishing sea as well as of the destructive ocean, could probably be imagined in F sharp minor. However, it would have to be audible under water, like the device invented in 1820 by engineer Charles Cagniard de Latour, called the siren, which is capable of producing very high-pitched tones of varying frequencies: a modulating, ascending and descending tone. Now that this sound signal has become widely used to warn of danger, its codification has become universal.
Four identical remote-controlled cars have been assigned their own voice. They are vehicles-annex-instruments, whose singing is mostly in F sharp minor, and their interaction as a duo, trio or quartet depends on the persons driving them. The possibilities of combinations are endless. They are activated and developed according to the way in which the vehicles are guided.
Control is simulated by means of the remote control and the steering wheel. The track is free, there are no signposts, with only the walls of the room acting as boundaries.
