SEMAFORI
Giuseppe Gavazza | Sound & Film
Site: La Napoule, France

Italian :  semaforo       English : traffic light           French : feu Semaforo comes from Greek σεμα (meaning) e φερω (to bring)

Italian: faro                   English: lighthouse            French: phare A lighthouse is a semaphore: a bringer of meaning.

Every lighthouse has its own voice: its rhythm and colour declare its location. Lighthouses are visual sirens: in Italian sirena means both siren and mermaid. During my residence in 2000 at La Napoule Art Foundation I filmed the eight lighthouses I could see from my room: an eight voice visual choir.

I have created a synchronised artificial audio to reveal each lighthouse's voice, transforming this luminous choir into an audible polyrhythmic one. This has been overlaid onto the original natural soundscape recorded in 2000. For the installation in the Bank Gallery each video with its accompanying audio will be transmitted through eight separate screens in the similar silent and dark space.