Tones in the Voice of Shadows, 2011
Site-specific installation. variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artists
An architectural fragment, perhaps a door leading to a secret place or any ordinary-looking element of the building, together with ambient sound documentation, are the starting points for the artworks and installations created by Esther Mañas and Arash Moori (Madrid, 1974 and Birmingham, 1978). Their source of inspiration is the volume and geometry of the place in which they are going to carry out a project. Although they don’t use film or video, their work makes curious and enigmatic reference to them, transforming the space into a sculptural irreality in which the visitor plays a leading role.
Since meeting in Helsinki in 2005, Esther Mañas and Arash Moori have worked together to develop an artistic concept based on experimentation, arising from the combination of sound, light and space. The artists use surveillance cameras, neon lights and other elements to create installations that require spectators to enter inside them, so as to arouse their senses and either evoke past experiences or make them experience new, unfamiliar sensations.
This site-specific convergence of materials, sound and technology comes together to form an integral landscape that pushes the boundaries of the place that it has been designed for. It stimulates the imagination of the visitor, who scans his/her memory for familiar points of reference that can take him/her to a “comfort zone” but fails to find any, creating a certain unease because nothing is familiar to him. And reminding him that silence does not exist.
Mysteriously invited to enter areas that are theoretically not accessible to the public, the visitor swaps the role of spectator for that of explorer, shifts from being an observer to a protagonist, “penetrating” the work and becoming part of it, even though its creators, Mañas and Moori, remain in control of what can happen inside. The site-specific installation thus makes protagonists of all those who venture inside it.
