Che Bella Voce!

An installation by Vito Willems, Menghan Wang and Oskar J. Mayböck

>>There is a story which goes like this: In the middle of a battle there is a company of Italian soldiers in the trenches, and an Italian commander who issues the command „Soldiers, attack!“ He cries out in a loud and clear voice to make himself heard in the midst of the tumult, but nothing happens, nobody moves. So the commander gets angry and shouts louder: „Soldiers, attack!“ Still nobody moves. And since in jokes things have to happen three times for something to stir, he yells even louder: „Soldiers, attack!“ At which point there is a response, a tiny voice rising from the trenches, saying appreciatively „Che bella voce!“ „What a beautiful voice!“<<

Dolar, Mladen: A Voice and Nothing More, Cambridge/London: The MIT Press 2006, p.3.

The audience enters a pitch black room. Inside they perceive a harsh and high pitched, sustained tone. At first the sound will remain unchanged. But as soon as a member of the audience starts to speak, it will instantly disappear. Whenever the speaking stops, the initial sound reappears, now accompanied by distorted reflections of the previously heard voice/s in a delocalized and detemporized manner. These sonic reflections are merged with flashing lights, both moving around in space simultaneously. The room only reacts to the human voice, which disrupts the sound and shuts the lights for as long as it is being raised. This process may be repeated, in order to fill the room’s sonic memory. The spoken words add up infinitely. After the initial triggering of the installation, it is only whilst speaking up that the participating spectator will be freed from the frantic voices of others. 

Che Bella Voce explores the human voice beyond reason and rationalization. It gives the audience the chance to use voice as an overpowering tool to silence its surroundings. And yet, it memorizes every single sound made by a human voice and reflects it right back at the audience, making it all the more necessary to use one’s voice in order to silence the others. Any other sound will be ignored.

Presented in November 2018 at the University of the Arts, Berlin.