ACT ZERO

ACT ZERO

by 

Harris Kafkarides

a place-specific performance/installation, part of RainZonances5

"Act Zero is an exploration on reconstructing the abandoned space where a grandiose cultural center would have been built. The space now used as a parking lot is transformed to an outlined ground plan of an imaginary stage set. Passersby become unaware actors of this 'ground zero' site, through the extension of faded parking area lines." (Harris Kafkarides)

I THINK I THOUGHT I SAW YOU TRY

I THINK I THOUGHT I SAW YOU TRY

by

Melita Couta 
a place-specific installation, part of Rainzonances5

"The gaze of a passerby will fall on views that repeat each other like Russian nesting dolls. The view of the 'terrain vague' is becoming the background of the images, displayed directly in front of the space. Another window within the collages draws on elements of history, memory, culture and urban expansion. Memories that were meant to be, are represented as urban renderings of a silent place."(Melita Couta)



*The pictures below are just a documentation of the work. Please visit the site for a more influential experience

AMBIENT FREQUENCIES

 Ambient Frequencies

by

Antonis Antoniou
..in traveling away from itself, sound is picked up elsewhere, overheard, carried forward, or brought back, through memories and recordings, to enliven the making of social space 
(B. Labelle)
 

"Disembodied sounds reaching unsuspecting ears have the ability to affect perception in extraordinary ways. Our instinct of orientation as well as that of survival can be abruptly woken when we hear a non-recognisable sound or something that cannot be explained through familiar patterns of relationships. This triggers a kind of mechanism that almost automatically scans through all rationale in order to decode the meaning of the unspecified sound. This sound has an eerie quality, prompting the imagination to visualise potential sources, reinvent the space and activate a layer of mythical place.

The work Ambient Frequencies uses two FM transmitters to 'hack' the passers-by's car radios in order to provoke their imagination to form an Aural Aura with regards to the site they are passing by - the site that the Cyprus Cultural Centre's was going to be constructed. The two transmitters propagate signals on the same frequency, a very popular radio station's frequency. On entering the zone in which the transmitters' signal overtake the radio station’s frequency, the listener's favourite program gradually fades out and in its place he/she hears the composition broadcasted from the first transmitter. Moving ahead, the signal crossfades for the second time, now with the second transmitter, which is set about 200 meters away from the first and broadcasts another electroacoustic composition. Depending on the traffic lights and the traffic in general, a listener can spend more time in the zone of the first or the second transmitter, listening to specific sections of each piece. Thus, the final outcome depends on several parameters, and each listener perceives the work in a different way. The compositions broadcasted by the two transmitters are not abstract at all, and the connection with the site and the Cultural Centre may easily be made. Urged by their instinct (as discussed above) to give a form to this intangible energy, the listeners can be led to perceive the aural aura of the Cultural Centre. Their extended ear has now unlocked the mystery and entered the place. They can now hear the echoes of an opera singer, an orchestra tuning, the audience's cough and so many other sounds." (Antonis Antoniou)

Transmitter 1

 

Transmitter 2

 

ΠΡΟΣΕΧΩΣ

ΠΡΟΣΕΧΩΣ

by 

Ariana Alphas & Melissa Carro

filming: Acilleas Zavallis

A place-specific video performance by Ariana Alphas and Melissa Garcia Carro, part of the project RainZonances5

 

"A rare encounter with an 'empty' space in the centre of the city that carries however a prescribed identity. 'A space flirting with the meaning of place but failing to accomplish this in a physical sense; it does so just on an imaginary level.' The performance puts a staged physicality to the existing space making an imaginary stage appear for an instant, highlighting what is already there and looking towards what was to be. The movements draw the lines, mark the space and are performed within it, by us and by anyone or anything else that happened to be there." (Ariana Alphas & Melissa Carro)

GIANT EAR

Giant Ear

by 

 Demetris Soteriou aka Rock the Dog & Antonis Antoniou

photographs: Achilleas Zavallis & Efthymia Alphas

"Giant Ear is a wheat-paste poster designed by Demetris Soteriou aka 'Rock the Dog' in collaboration with sound artist Antonis Antoniou. The work invites the random passers-by to tune their ears to the Aural Aura of this extraordinary site, that would have become the cultural hub of Cyprus had the Cultural Centre been constructed. This vision is still haunting the site, echoing ambient drones of expectation and suspension." (Demetris Soteriou & Antonis Antoniou)