Info
Gil Delindro (PT) is a unique presence among a new generation of Sound and Media Arts. He has distinguished himself by the research on organic elements, ephemeral events and intangible processes in Nature. His trans-disciplinary practice is based upon film, installation, sound performance and site specific/field research, facing themes such as bioacoustics, animism, ephemerality and geology.
Delindro´s pieces directly translate stages of organic matter such as soil, water, wood and detritus in to expanded sonic spatial works. His time-based installations oppose biological structures with technological components, often creating autonomous systems that exist in a fragile transient space.
A great part of his work is dedicated to extensive field research in limit geographies – from the 3 month residency in African Saharan Desert “The Weight of Mountains 2015” to the Rainforests of Brazil “Resiliência 2017” – and recently the Minority Villages of Vietnam “Blind Signal 2019”, actively exploring links between field recording, anthropology, ecology and art practice. In 2016 he was selected by SHAPE as one of the most innovative sound artists working in Europe, being commissioned by reference festivals such as MusikProtokoll (Austria), Novas Frequências (Brazil), CynetArt (Dresden) Athens Digital Arts Fest (Athens), ARS Eletronica (Linz), Submerge festival (Bristol), Semibreve (Braga), among others.
Rhone
During his residency, Gil Delindro will develop his project Rhone. The work will be presented to the WRO audience during the 19th Media Art Biennale WRO 2021 REVERSO.
The installation is the result of a 3 month recording expedition to the Rhone Glacier, the birthplace of one of Europe’s biggest rivers. This giant bodie of Ice was the biggest Glacier of the Alps in the last Ice Age, and the main responsible for the geologic formation of the Swiss Lac Leman and the valley that precedes it.
By using high sensibility hydrophones, and microphones, several recordings were conducted on different locations of the Glacier, these include: Ice tunnels, the mountain range and a Gravel Factory that operates on the Glacier´s end. The recordings were made with special attention to low frequencies and infra-sound. Infrasound corresponds to a range of frequency below human hearing capacity, these can be produced both in the movement of the Glacier and in big mechanic industrial complexes. In order to give physical form to the recorded low frequencies, this project´s end result is a kinetic organic installation that uses gravell collected directly at the bottom end of the Glacier, together with transducer speakers that vibrate under very low frequencies. Although infrasounds cannot be acoustically perceived by humans, these transducer speakers generate movement, constantly oscillating the gravel around them. Through this friction, they physically interact with the Glacier gravel, re-arranging the soil in a kinetic installation, and generating new acoustic sounds on their own.