JAMES BRIDLE & NAVINE G. KHAN-DOSSOS / Hymn to Malandrina
PRESENTING THE EKO 8 ART PROJECTS
JAMES BRIDLE & NAVINE G. KHAN-DOSSOS / Hymn to Malandrina, 2019
audio artwork (field recordings from Viggianello of calls between humans and
animals), 22 min
courtesy of the artists
How do we talk to non-humans? How do we make ourselves known to others, to acknowledge their existence, command them, and thank them for their service and
sacrifice? One answer is found in the calls of the farmers and herders who keep, cajole, chase, care for, live with and depend upon the animals, which provide food, sustenance, tourist spectacle, and ritual roles for the rest of us.
Recorded in and around the village of Viggianello in Southwest Basilicata, the soundtrack to the exhibition features the voices of Francesco "Capo" Caputo, Maria Francesca Gallicchio, Matteo Francesco Caputo, Carlo De Tommaso, Luigi De Tommaso, Giovanni Forte, Maria Oliveto, Rosina Corraro, and the assorted oxen, horses, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, and other inhabitants of the commune of Viggianello.
This work is intended to play as a soundtrack to the exhibition and will be presented in several locations both at the MTT site and in the entrance space and stairwell at the Maribor Art Gallery.
The work was recorded and edited by James Bridle for the exhibition Il Paese di Cuccagna, co-curated by James Bridle and Navine G. Khan-Dossos for I-DEA, Matera European Capital of Culture 2019.
Navine G. Khan-Dossos (UK) is a visual artist working between London and Athens. Her interests include orientalism in the digital realm, geometry as information and decoration, image calibration, and aniconism in contemporary culture. James Bridle (UK) is a writer, artist, journalist, and technologist. Their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and on the Internet. Their writing on literature, culture, and networks has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, The Atlantic, New Statesman, The Guardian, and The Observer. New Dark Age, Bridle's book about technology, knowledge, and the end of the future, was published by Verso (UK & US) in 2018.
