MURMURE

Multichannel audio installation for 9 speakers and 8 beehive

Iruñeko Topaketak 72-22, Baluarte, IRUÑEA (Nafarroa)
6-18 october 2022

The ancients tell that, when he was still a child, a swarm of bees formed a honeycomb of sweetest honey in Pindar’s mouth; harbinger of his future pre-eminence over the lyrical poets of all centuries and countries.
Odes of Pindar

Poetry was born from the caress of a sting, like a sweet sting on the lips. Mellow poison, an infection becoming word, released and thrown indiscriminately into the ear like a virus. Since the human being sings, he has been going to the hive. He talks to it and listens to it. The swarm always responds. Through its unstable drone, meticulously constructed by endless flapping of wings and nervous thoracic percussion, the hive prophesies and consequently becomes an oracle. It is believed that the temple of Delphi, the original oracle that invites the visitor to discover himself at its door, was built by bees. They carried the voice of the deities.

God has always been a hum, a constant murmur, a border noise that carries everything within itself and nothing at the same time.

MURMURE is a sound installation created specifically for the Encuentros de Pamplona 72-22. Composed of real hives which show sound recordings made within several hives of the Cantabrian coast thanks to several beekeepers of Navarre. The work is based on an anthropological reading of the importance of bees in different cultures around the world, paying special attention to the mystical characteristics that each of these cultures has given to this insect. A poetic reading that clashes with the essential importance of this species in maintaining the balance of the ecosystems in which we live.

Technical Support: Iñigo Telletxea, Luca Rullo
Intervention: Alex Mendizabal
Thanks to Mikel Lertxundi, Jaione Irisarri,  Andres Rodrigues, Ramón Andrés, Maitena Muruzabal, Asier Gogortza, Peito Castelo, Alex Mendizabal, Ibai Gogortza

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