ARTIFACT II
Architect: Alfredo Thiermann
Sound Artist: Ariel Bustamante
Team: Carola Roa, Blanca Valdes, Elvira Valdes, Pablo Thiermann
Area: 60 sq/m
Program: Sound Installation
Location: National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile
Project: 2012
Construction: 2013
Photography: Alfredo Thiermann,
Michelle Gravel
Is a large-scale installation built in front of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago de Chile. The project is the outcome of a public competition to pursue an artist-in-residence program in Antarctica. The Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959 is about to expire, and it has been this geopolitical agreement what has kept Antarctic out of reach from human agency. As the end of the treaty approaches, countries are claiming sovereignty while science and culture are used as a vehicles to develop a “sense of belonging.” The hermetically sealed and sound-proof artefact was built to precisely counteract this impulse of appropriation, aiming to construct an imaginary of Antarctica as alien as possible. The 18-meter long and 12.000-kilo cylinder hanged from 6mm-thick cables. Visitors were invited to enter this suspended space and experience a composition made out of field recordings and electronically synthesised sounds.