Frozen Dreams is an article published in Polarlit magazine no. 1, September 2024.
RESUMÈ
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Of how I knew of The Frozen Words
During my music studies, I discovered a passage known as Les Paroles Gelées (The Frozen Words). It was a part of François Rabelais’s Quart Livre of Gargantua et Pantagruel, a five-book bestseller from 1552.
This is the edge of the frozen sea, and at the beginning of last winter there was a great and bloody battle here between the Arimaspians and the Cloud Riders. The shouts of the men, the cries of the women, the slashing of the battle-axes, the clashing of the armour and harnesses, the neighing of the horses and all the other frightful noises of battle became frozen on the air. At this hour, when the rigours of winter have passed, the serenity and temper of the good old days come to the fore, they melt and are heard.
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Of how I decided to use the frozen words in a sonic installation
Summer 2021: symposium, L'enchantement qui revient, Castle of Cerisy, Normandy. Installation, Dream Clouds: a dozen small loudspeakers hanging from clusters of luminous balloons, scattered around the castle’s park created a spread of voices into the night, as the frozen words awoke. “Make dreams, not war!”, I thought, and I launched an appeal and collected several dreams told in different languages.
- 3 -
Of how we dreamed of bringing back the frozen words in the Arctic sea
Artist's residencies at the Spitsbergen Kunstnersenter: a double residency in Winter solstice 2023 and Summer solstice 2024 with my friend Eugenio Pini, we planned to create an off-stage installation; the frozen dreams–we thought–would take shape in the documentation of the difficulty of being realised: existing as a fragmentary reality and not perceivable in the reality it would be reactivated in its documentation becoming real in the narrative, made of recorded sounds and images, of the documentary film we intend to make.
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Of how the frozen dreams illuminated in the Arctic in winter
On Friday 5 January 2024, we presented our installation, Frozen Dreams: Luminous Voices in the Night, in the Art Gallery.
At the same time we recorded sounds, photos and videos to continue the initial project of a documentary on the design and realisation of the project. Frozen Dreams is a work in progress that continues now, as we returned to our homes, in preparation for our next summer solstice Artic residency. And hopefully beyond.
- 5 -
Reactivation
At this hour, when the rigours of winter have passed, the serenity and temper of the good old days come to the fore, they melt and are heard.
Summer is here, and the icy landscape melts into sonorous rivulets of water dripping from the mountains and glaciers in a multitude of trickling, fragile streams, burrowing twisted canyons in the ice; flowing between coal-black, iron-red and multi coloured boulders immersed in the innumerable shades of green and brown of the musks dotted with the bright colours of minute flowers; roaring in the constant flush of the muddy Longyearelva, which rises from the ice of the Longyearbreen to flow into the Adventfjiorden and Adventdalen at Longyerbyen, the northernmost city in the world.
Water, sun, and wind have spent millions of years shaping these mountains that collapse into counterforts of boulders, stones, and pebbles.
At this hour, when the rigours of winter have passed, the serenity and temper of the good old days come to the fore. Dreams thaw and are heard like voices rising from shallow piles of stones resting on the floor of a different room in the same art gallery that had hosted the frozen voices falling from the roof, just one night ago.
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Of how new dreams (even yours) can feed the project
Here is a summary of the call which you can download here:
or read it on this blog page:
https://listentothisworld.blogspot.com/2023/11/we-need-your-dreams.html
We invite you to send us your dreams; told in audio files that will remain anonymous beyond the '' installation.
“... everything we experience and imagine as a dream is a dream: dreams shared when we are awake; others we remember from a long time ago; dreams known because they have been recounted by others (parents, children, grandparents, friends, passing strangers, ...), dreams written down and re-read, even very short fragments of dreams, ... The collection of dreams continues with new evocations for new occasions. The dreams, part of this intimate and private archive of mine, will only be revealed on the occasion of the installation, but will not be shared in any other way.”
Indications for audio recordings
- preferably record short audio, between 10 and 100 seconds,
- you can record with your mobile phone: high fidelity is not necessary,
- do not say your name; you may mention it in the file name if you wish,
- if the file is larger than 3Mb possibly send it by file transfer or upload it to a shared drive.
Please send to:
Many thanks
Giuseppe Gavazza