FREDI SOLA

d i s / p l a c e (audioscapes from Oerlikon)

Video installation, 5:40  min., loop, sound, 2017

Oerlikon is a lively and growing neighborhood with an industrial past. Today, its population is multicultural, and it has become one of the most bustling areas in Zurich. From the busy arteries to the quiet side streets, one can see and hear many sides of the neighborhood. But how would it be to experience Oerlikon’s landscape through an artwork?

Artists Mayar el Hayawan and Joanna Selinger (Fredi Sola), who are currently living in Zurich and Basel, recorded local sounds and images throughout the autumn in Oerlikon, which were integrated into the visual and sound installation you are about to enter. The artists produced an experimental visual audioscape of the neighborhood, offering the visitor a site for experience.

The creative process of this piece was developed through an exchange between the two artists, a kind of conversation or call and response to each other’s input. They concentrated on reflective surfaces and echo sounds as an audiovisual metaphor of the city and our perception of its constant flux and transformation.

Artists Bio Fredi Sola is an art collective formed by artists Mayar El Hayawan (Cairo, Egypt, 1994 ) and Joanna Selinger (Basel, Switzerland, 1992). They started working together since they met at the Basel School of Art and Design. Their practice is focused in new media and generative design practices, often leading them to combine different mediums and to experiment with analogue and digital techniques. Curators Bio Elena Rosauro and Adriana Domínguez are a duo of Art Historians that have been working together on curatorial projects since 2016. They developed the pop-up exhibition space la_cápsula, which exhibits experimental artworks by Swiss and Latin-American artists. They currently live in Zurich.

wave forms 

During the seminar < nature/data > we started experimenting with different visualisation of natural phenomena. We were both extremely intrigued by explaining natural occurrences in unconventional ways and using sound felt logical to both of us because it could be seen as a natural data input or a way to visualise natural phenomena. with the help of a software called “ Sonifyer ” we were able to produce audible frequencies from the seismographic data. Afterwards we inserted the different Tsunami soundtracks into a modified version of a processing script. For our exhibition we broke out from our extremely clinical view of the data we were using, and decided to use our artistic liberties to create an experimental piece of music with the sounds that we had produced. This intern was added to our processing script and projected upon our sculpture. Our work could be experienced as a visual installation accompanied by our piece of music.

This piece was also exhibited at la capsula as well - Summer 2017.