For the sixth edition of Una Boccata d’Arte, Vica Pacheco transforms the Prato di Sant’Andrea, at the edge of Bagnara di Romagna, into a device for collective listening.This area, shielded from urban development and invasive agricultural practices, becomes home to a dispersed orchestra composed of ceramic musical instruments—bells and gramophones inspired by occhi della Madonna (speedwell flowers), and a family of frogs attuned to the biodiversity inhabiting the meadow. The Mexican artist activates a poetic relationship between sound, ecology, and collective gesture, giving form to an installation that invites slowness, attentiveness, and tuning in to what usually lies at the edge of perception.
The project draws inspiration from the practice of deep listening, theorized by Pauline Oliveros: a radical form of listening that engages the entire body and opens up new possibilities for connecting with the world.The orchestra is activated through public interaction, the ticking of rain, and the presence of the meadow’s non-human inhabitants, generating a soundscape in constant motion. On the day of the opening, a secular procession from the town center to the meadow transforms the audience into a moving sonic body. The gesture is inspired by the calendas of Oaxaca, the artist’s homeland, and takes the form of a healing ritual to mend the bond between the community and water—an element charged with fear after recent floods.The sculptures, created in collaboration with the artisan workshop Sottosasso, are the result of research into the ceramic traditions of Faenza.
With Concierto de ranas – Preludio para seres del umbral, Vica Pacheco invites us to resonate with the submerged voices of the landscape, restoring to sound a function of care and shared presence.
ARTIST: Vica Pacheco