Sound artist and composer Marcus Fischer started a project just the day before January 20th, 2017, date in which the new president of the United States started his government period, arising all kind of reactions which probably you already know well.
The project, Untitled aka Words of Concern, consisted in an invitation Fischer did to artists-in-residence and staff at the Rauschenberg Residency, asking them to allow him record their voices “as they listed their words of concern on the incoming administration, its aftermath and the years that will follow”.
The result of the experiment was a 3 minute tape loop in which their voices and Fischer’s speak on the critical needs and problematic issues which, actually, transcend their country to give voices to many others, since there is, for sure, so much people in the world also concerned, also wanting to speak, also wanting to feel not alone. As the artist states, “All of these concerns that we share should give us strength instead of weigh us down. We are not alone. Our words have power.”
Such an elegant and delicate way of manifesting our issues demonstrates how we can do something without saturating ourselves, instead using art, simplicity and sound to be as direct as we can, not playing the dirty game of those to whom we are reacting. Actually, the project was finely installed in the Rauschenberg studio, where an old Nagra recorder, and a beautifully exposed tape, reproduce the hypnotizing call for action, which in this case could start just with an act of listening, constantly, to all of our words of concern.
