Via (2015)
| Durata: | 720’ |
| Category: | Music and architecture |
| Listen: |
Via is a music installation for a walking bridge at Malmö Live. The music is spatially composed and played through 21 speakers mounted in benches on the footbridge and in the grass at the foot of the bridge. Twelve hours of music in a system that divides the day into five phases, where ten loops of individual lengths form patterns that gradually shift over the passing weeks. The music is played around the clock, all year round, but the pattern only remains the same after eight weeks. The sound material - consisting of specially composed recordings of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra as well as recordings of other instruments and sound environments - was processed in the studio and woven into the twelve-hour structure.
Moving, changing - in time and space. The place, people passing by, the noise of the city, the architectural design and connective function of the footbridge, the benches inviting silence and pause. Flow, the water moving and sparkling through the moiré pattern in the bridge's railings. Patterns of music, fictitious orchestras meeting and disappearing in a large structure that expands over time. Shifts, waves of sound with fluid transitions. Distances that are measured and made perceptible by the music, which takes place in different positions in space, at different times of the day - moving from one position to another.
Via was commissioned by Malmö Förskönings- och Planteringsförening in collaboration with the City of Malmö and supported by the Swedish Arts Council. The work was composed at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion) in Stockholm. The technical installations on the walking bridge were made by Informationsteknik in Malmö. The footbridge was designed by architect Rasmus Astrup of the Danish architectural firm SLA.
Via is part of the City of Malmö's public art initiative, and the music installation - a site-specific piece of sound art - is one of several new works to be inaugurated at Malmö Live on 3 June 2015.
