Itziar Okariz
10 Jul - 21 Sep 2008
Itziar Okariz Irrintzi.
Repetition. Gap of Dunloe. Black Lough .Killarney 2008
Photograph, Ghost Box Exhibition, sala rekalde, Bilbao
Repetition. Gap of Dunloe. Black Lough .Killarney 2008
Photograph, Ghost Box Exhibition, sala rekalde, Bilbao
ITZIAR OKARIZ
"Ghost Box"
10 July - 21 September 2008
Curator: Leire Vergara
Itziar Okariz shows a new installation entitled Ghost Box that she has produced specifically for sala rekalde. The installation comprises various sound and film clips recorded during a series of actions by the artist during her time visiting the Killarney lakes, a natural park in the south of County Kerry in the west of Ireland. This area is noted for its remarkable topography, since it consists of a chain of rocky mountains and three lakes and is a natural enclave where some of the most extraordinary echoes in the world can be heard. The Killarney echoes are extremely clear and deep, above all those that bounce back off Eagle’s Nest, the name given to an enormous face of marble.
Echoes are a phenomenon related to the reflection of sound and are produced when a sound wave hits a reflective wall or similar surface. The distance between the sound source and the reflective surface also affects how long the echo lasts. Every place has its own sonority, determined by its physical morphology, and this has a direct impact on our sensorial capacity and on the way we understand the spatiality of the location.
In her series of works entitled “Irrintzi”, Itziar Okariz explores the acoustics particular to a number of places in actions or performances that she records on video. The irrintzi is a system of communication at the limits of language, a traditional Basque call that the artist employs in several performances as an acoustic tool with which to experience the space. There is a certain ambivalence in Okariz’s actions vis-à-vis the connotations of national identity in this exclamation, which it is thought developed as a form of basic communication between valleys in the Basque Country and later became used as an expression of jubilation and exaltation on special occasions. The way in which the artist uses this cry in her performances opens up new paths of interpretation as a result of her habit of removing it from the context of its original cultural connection and even to confront it with new referents. This is exemplified by Irrintzi. Repetition 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 (2006), which includes an 11-minute clip and tests that the artist recorded in her studio while listening to and repeatedly uttering irrintzis. The essentialist image of the irrintzi and its mechanical repetition appear are contrasted in this action. In Irrintzi, Repetition. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007) Okariz makes her way through the various rooms in the museum and demonstrates their acoustic diversity by means of her voice. The quality of the first irrintzi and its gradual fading in the subsequent reverberations expose the contrast between tradition and modernity. In another performance—Irrintzi Repetition. Bowery, New York (2008)—at the corner of Bowery and Grand Street, the artist hollers irrintzis through a megaphone. In this piece, she is above all interested in the relationship between the various forms of identity and their connection with specific codes and language systems.
In sala rekalde, Itziar Okariz presents the results of a new series of performances in the natural surroundings of the Killarney lakes. In addition to a faithful reconstruction of the performance in Killarney, the installation also draws together the tensions existing between the action and its recording, thereby exposing the artificiality inherent in every representational process. Ghost Box reveals the specific temporality of the performance and its habit of disappearing. Every video, sound, photographic or textual recording is merely the residue of an action that itself no longer exists. The works that make up the installation at no point explicitly show what has happened. This time we are not provided with the image of the artist carrying out the action; on the contrary, phantasmatically, we are partially offered evidence of what has taken place by her voice, the spontaneous sounds captured during the performance of the artistic actions, or the supporting images from the different locations of the action. So Ghost Box is likewise transformed into action through being designed as an exercise within the exhibition space that reveals the constant phenomenological loss of the performance as an artistic medium.
"Ghost Box"
10 July - 21 September 2008
Curator: Leire Vergara
Itziar Okariz shows a new installation entitled Ghost Box that she has produced specifically for sala rekalde. The installation comprises various sound and film clips recorded during a series of actions by the artist during her time visiting the Killarney lakes, a natural park in the south of County Kerry in the west of Ireland. This area is noted for its remarkable topography, since it consists of a chain of rocky mountains and three lakes and is a natural enclave where some of the most extraordinary echoes in the world can be heard. The Killarney echoes are extremely clear and deep, above all those that bounce back off Eagle’s Nest, the name given to an enormous face of marble.
Echoes are a phenomenon related to the reflection of sound and are produced when a sound wave hits a reflective wall or similar surface. The distance between the sound source and the reflective surface also affects how long the echo lasts. Every place has its own sonority, determined by its physical morphology, and this has a direct impact on our sensorial capacity and on the way we understand the spatiality of the location.
In her series of works entitled “Irrintzi”, Itziar Okariz explores the acoustics particular to a number of places in actions or performances that she records on video. The irrintzi is a system of communication at the limits of language, a traditional Basque call that the artist employs in several performances as an acoustic tool with which to experience the space. There is a certain ambivalence in Okariz’s actions vis-à-vis the connotations of national identity in this exclamation, which it is thought developed as a form of basic communication between valleys in the Basque Country and later became used as an expression of jubilation and exaltation on special occasions. The way in which the artist uses this cry in her performances opens up new paths of interpretation as a result of her habit of removing it from the context of its original cultural connection and even to confront it with new referents. This is exemplified by Irrintzi. Repetition 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 (2006), which includes an 11-minute clip and tests that the artist recorded in her studio while listening to and repeatedly uttering irrintzis. The essentialist image of the irrintzi and its mechanical repetition appear are contrasted in this action. In Irrintzi, Repetition. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007) Okariz makes her way through the various rooms in the museum and demonstrates their acoustic diversity by means of her voice. The quality of the first irrintzi and its gradual fading in the subsequent reverberations expose the contrast between tradition and modernity. In another performance—Irrintzi Repetition. Bowery, New York (2008)—at the corner of Bowery and Grand Street, the artist hollers irrintzis through a megaphone. In this piece, she is above all interested in the relationship between the various forms of identity and their connection with specific codes and language systems.
In sala rekalde, Itziar Okariz presents the results of a new series of performances in the natural surroundings of the Killarney lakes. In addition to a faithful reconstruction of the performance in Killarney, the installation also draws together the tensions existing between the action and its recording, thereby exposing the artificiality inherent in every representational process. Ghost Box reveals the specific temporality of the performance and its habit of disappearing. Every video, sound, photographic or textual recording is merely the residue of an action that itself no longer exists. The works that make up the installation at no point explicitly show what has happened. This time we are not provided with the image of the artist carrying out the action; on the contrary, phantasmatically, we are partially offered evidence of what has taken place by her voice, the spontaneous sounds captured during the performance of the artistic actions, or the supporting images from the different locations of the action. So Ghost Box is likewise transformed into action through being designed as an exercise within the exhibition space that reveals the constant phenomenological loss of the performance as an artistic medium.