Audiowalk + Installation for pedestrian bridges. Co-creation, 2013-2016
Bridging the Silence is a co-creation project launched in 2013 by Croatian multimedia artist Hrvoslava Brkušić (Zagreb) and Northern Irish poet Deirdre Cartmill (Belfast). In 2016, as part of the CORNERS of EUROPE platform, it visited Blyth (UK), Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain).
BRIDGES-PUENTES 2016: Commissioner’s Quay (Blyth), Savanski Bridge (Zagreb), Hradetski Bridge (Ljubljana), Pasarela Mikel Laboa (Donostia-SS).
This installation offers pedestrians on each bridge the opportunity to listen to an audiowalk (sound track on headphones, duration 15min) that collects testimonies from survivors of different life experiences from different parts of Europe. It attempts to represent their emotional journey, from inner turmoil to peace.
In the audiowalk, a narrator’s voice in the local language is mixed with the different languages used in the testimonies, music, poetry and different sounds.
At the same time, we have installed a series of keywords along the bridge, constructed from mirrors, which refer to different feelings that are experienced on a journey of overcoming adversity.
The presence of the three artists on the bridge facilitates a whole series of conversations. Some people want to participate in the project by recording their testimonies so that they can be included in the next version of the audiowalk. Thus, in addition to adapting the visual installation to each bridge and location, the audiowalk changes and, with it, the experience we offer.
