RESIDENCY UPDATE: Maria Gaspar partners with Juanjo Palacios and the Spanish Embassy
This past year, ESS and the Spain Arts & Culture program of the Spanish Embassy collaborated to create a Sound Art Residency. This cross-continent digital exchange brought together Chicago-based artist and educator Maria Gaspar with Spanish artist, composer and sound recordist Juanjo Palacios, based in Asturias, Spain. Over the course of several months, they had the opportunity to research, experiment, share knowledge and ideas, and extend the development of sound art.
Both artists have developed pieces incorporating real-world materials and locations. Maria Gaspar’s piece, entitled Palimpsest, utilizes sounds from the bars of the recently-demolished Cook County Jail, continuing her dialogue with how the jail impacts the local Little Village community surrounding and those formerly incarcerated.
About Palimpsest:
In Palimpsest, Gaspar collects carceral debris including iron bars from Chicago’s Cook County Department of Corrections during the demolition of Division I that took place for several months in 2021. Located in her childhood neighborhood, the jail has been the site of a body of work by Gaspar including the 96 Acres Project and Radioactive: Stories from Beyond the Wall.
Drawing from the work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Gaspar reflects on the notion of “presence” in relation to abolition practice and seeks to transform objects that hold painful histories into sonic meditations that recognize and honors the lives of system-impacted people and beyond. In Palimpsest, Gaspar records each iron bar using a contact mic to “listen” to the voices they carry and to draw out the tones of their materiality. This work is produced in residency with the Experimental Sound Studio and the Embassy of Spain.
About Juanjo Palacio’s piece En Construcción:
En construcción is a sound piece composed from acoustic recordings which were made during the construction of a stormwater tank in Gijón, Spain. Stormwater tanks are designed to collect water from rain, especially during heavy rainfall events, thus minimizing the risk of flooding. They also prevent the first flush of rainwater, which is the most polluting, from being dumped directly into rivers or streams.
Based on contemporary art practices, this piece goes beyond the noise associated with this kind of infrastructure to convey the richness and diversity of the sounds generated during the construction work of such structures. This piece aims to highlight the value of industrial sound heritage, which is often undervalued and sometimes altogether ignored. It also seeks to emphasize the importance of listening as a tool to better understand our environment.
The Sound Art Residency is organized by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC and Experimental Sound Studio
For more information, as well as a description of Juanjo Palacios’ work En construcción (Under Construction), visit the Spain Arts & Culture website here.
Maria Gaspar’s residency was part of ESS’s Out Ear Residency program, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
