Zulozar, 2016

Sound Installation

Description:

Zulozar consisted of a sonic intervention at Buskando, one of the oldest water deposits in Donostia-San Sebastián (Basque Country), located inside Viveros de Ulía Park. The park, originally hosting the plant nurseries of the city, was in danger of disappearing due to a process of urban development —finally stopped thanks to the pressure o the neighbourhood movement in 2017. The latter is now taking care of the park and the deposits as well as proposing a sustainable model based on self-organization in order to recuperate this historical park between the city and Mount Ulía

The soundwork gathered a series of recordings of the surrounding urban landscape resonating inside the deposit. Departing from low-pitched and deep sounds —of car engines, of the sonic substrate of the streets— sounds from the park —its fauna, its vegetation, its inhabitants— were progressively being mixed until water became the common thread leading towards a more synthetic piece. Towards the end a more contemporary representation of water prevailed —merging sounds recorded in the new water deposits and the sewage systems of the city— focusing on the technologies of water as a commodified means within urban space.

Terri Florido was invited to finish the intervention with his work Geoacoustics consisting of activating the resonance of the space using the medium itself —speakers, microphones, mixer— as a channel to arise the sound of the deposits through its own feedback. Using radiesthesia rods, he looked for the “sonic points” of the space. Those points were used to locate the speakers in both interventions and in the case of Florido, were an active element to stimulate a “geoacoustic image” of Buskando.

Zulozar refers to a toponym given to the place before the deposits and the plant nurseries existed —back in the XIX century. Its origin —which in Basque language means “old hole”— derives from a deep hole in the ground that used to collect the rainwater coming from Mount Ulía. The hole became a spot where kids would gather to play around. A simple hole in the ground would thus become a starting point for the construction of a place.

Interview by Pauline Doutreluingne
Interview in Spanish by Uliako Lore-Baratzak

Photographs: