Voz Alta
Relational Architecture 15
"Voz Alta" (Loud Voice) is a memorial commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the student massacre in Tlatelolco, which took place on October 2nd 1968. In the piece, participants speak freely into a megaphone placed on the "Plaza de las Tres Culturas", right where the massacre took place. As the megaphone amplifies the voice, a 10kW searchlight automatically "beams" the voice as a sequence of flashes: if the voice is silent the light is off and as it gets louder so does the light's brightness. As the searchlight beam hits the top of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, now Centro Cultural Tlatelolco, it is relayed by three additional searchlights, one pointed to the north, one to the southeast towards Zócalo Square and one to the southwest towards the Monument to the Revolution. Depending on the weather, the searchlights could be seen from a 15Km radius, quietly transmitting the voice of the participants over Mexico City. Anyone around the city could tune into 96.1FM Radio UNAM to listen in live to what the lights were saying.
When no one was participanting the light on the Plaza was off but the three lights on the building played back archival recordings of survivors, interviews with intellectuals and politicians, music from 1968 and radio art pieces commissioned by Radio UNAM. In this way the memory of the event was mixed with live participation.
Thousands of people participated in this project, without censorship or moderation. Participation included statements from survivors, street poetry, shout-outs, ad hoc art performaces, marriage proposals, calls for protest and more.
The piece exists as a functional prototype that is shown with video documentation. The prototype is the same Megaphone as was used in the public art piece, except it has been modified to incorporate a powerful xenon searchlight inside, so that when a participant speaks into it, his or her voice gets converted into light flashes. An FM radio transmitter allows transistor radios to hear exactly what the light is saying: be it live participation or archival material from the memorial.
General info
Public art
Video with prototype
Exhibitions
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Presencia Inestable, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, México, 2019 - 2020.
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 2018.
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Preabsence, Haus der Elektronischen Künste Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2016.
- Unsaid/Spoken, The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States, 2012 - 2013 Voz Alta Prototype .
- Play with me, Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles, California, United States, 2012.
- Freedom to Create, The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011 (video).
- Freedom to Create, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India, 2011 (video).
- InTERvenciones, Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y de las Artes, Valparaíso, Chile, 2010 (video).
- Atopia, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, 2010 (video).
- Transition States, Haunch of Venison, New York City, New York, United States, 2009 (prototype and video).
- Recent works, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève, Switzerland, 2009 (video).
- Being in the World, The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States, 2009 (prototype and video).
- 5 Solos, Galería OMR, Mexico City, México, 2009 (video).
- Voz Alta, Memorial for the Tlatelolco student massacre, Mexico City, México, 2008.
Credits
- Gideon May - Software and Hardware Design
- Gastón Ramirez Feltrín - Production manager for Antimodular
- Alejandro Aguinaco - Production manager for CCT
- Griselda Ramírez Feltrín, Ximena Molina, Pablo Valverde, Olfa Driss, Pierre Fournier, Andrea Navarro - production support
- Commissioned by the Centro Cultural Tlatelolco of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Bibliography
- "Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", Atopia, Barcelona, Spain, 2010 (english). Text of 1 page. (Book)
- "Pseudomatismos, de Rafael Lozano-Hemmer muestra la luz en el arte", Zona Franca, Guanajuato, México, October 30th 2015 (español). Text of 3 pages. (Website)
- "Play with me", Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, United States, 2012 (english and español). Text of 3 pages. (Book)
Anstead, Alicia, "Special effects", Inside Arts, Washington, D.C., United States, January 2009 (english). Text of 6 pages. (Magazine)
- Aracil, Eythel, "Nosotros hacemos los edificios y los edificios nos hacen a nosotros", The Huffington Post, Mexico City, México, February 26th 2017 (english). Text of 12 pages. Text of 7 pages. (Newspaper)
- Arozqueta, Claudia, "En la mira: reflectores, arte y vigilancia", Campo de Relámpagos, Spain, July 31st 2016 (español). Text of 7 pages. (Website)
Avilés Cavasola, Juncia, "El 68: Todo el día y toda la noche", UNAM, Mexico City, México, 2010 (español). Text of 1 page. (Book)
- Avilés Cavasola, Juncia Ed., "Voz alta: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", UNAM, Mexico City, México, 2010 (español). Text of 5 pages. (Book)
- Batet, Janet, "Unsaid/Spoken CIFO", Arte al Dia Internacional, Miami, Florida, United States, May 8th 2013 (english). Text of 2 pages. (Website)
- Benítez, Mónica, Gemma Argüello, "Los creadores de voces - Entrevista a Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Ediciones Gernika, Mexico City, México, January 1st 2014 (english). Text of 16 pages. (Book)
- Campbell-Dollaghan, Kelsey, "A Digital Artist Combines Ghostly Light Shows And Beatboxing", Fast Co Deisgn, United States, 2013 (english). Text of 3 pages. (Website)
- Castres, Mathilde, "Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: une revolution techno-poetique", Inferno, Avignon, France, February 3rd 2016 (français). Text of 3 pages. (Magazine)
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Druckrey, Timothy, "Bodies, voices, pulses, traces, profanations...", Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Recorders, exhibition catalogue, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2010 (english). Text of 7 pages. (Book)
Fernández, María, "Transnational culture at the End of the Millennium.", Cosmopolitanism in Mexican Visual Culture, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, United States, 2014 (english). Text of 28 pages. (Book)
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- Freedom to Create Prize 2010, Freedom to Create Prize ‒ Voices of Courage 2010, Freedom to Create Prize 2010, Cairo, Egypt, 2010 (english). Text of 1 page. (Book)
- Galilee, Beatrice, "In Trafalguar Square", Icon, Epping, United Kingdom, February 2009 (english). Text of 2 pages. (Magazine)
- Graham, Beryl, "Amplification" Singapore Biennale 2011, exhibition catalogue, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, Singapore, (english). Text of 5 pages. (Book)
- Haber, Alicia., "Arte, ciencia y tecnología: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", El País, Montevideo, Uruguay, December 31st 2013 (español). Text of 9 pages. (Newspaper)
- Harding, Oliver, "Surveying the new media scene with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", Centre Phi, Montréal, Québec, Canada, March 29th 2017 (english). Text of 8 pages. (Website)
- Khan, Sawaiba, "New art project will show your heartbeat in lights above UAE", What's On, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 6th 2015 (english). Text of 2 pages. (Website)
- Martínez de la Vega, Andrea, "Artista del espacio público", Reforma, Mexico City, México, March 13th 2017 (español). Text of 1 page. (Newspaper)
- Medina, Cuauhtémoc, "Producir/gozar lo público.", El Reforma, Mexico City, México, October 1st 2008 (español). Text of 1 page. (Newspaper)
- Önol, Isin, "Rafael Lozano-Hemmer ve Kolektif Bellek", Artful Living, Istanbul, Turkey, July 28th 2016 (türkçe). Text of 11 pages. (Website)
- Pohlenz, Ricardo, "Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", FlashArt, Vol. XLI, No. 263, Milan, Italy, November 2008 (english). Text of 1 page. (Magazine)
- Reyes, Luis, "A 40 años de la matanza de Tlatelolco, 'el Legislativo no ha emitido una condena pública'", La Jornada, Mexico City, México, November 25th 2008 (español). Text of 2 pages. (Newspaper)
- Roffiel, Othiana, "Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Cuando el retrato se convierte en paisaje", Artishock, Chile, June 21st 2016 (español). Text of 12 pages. (Website)
- Sierra, Sonia, "Voces de hoy se hacen luz", El Universal, Mexico City, México, November 25th 2008 (español). Text of 1 page. (Newspaper)
Walder, Paul, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: fragmentos de un código fuente. Rafael Lozano Hemmer: fragments of a source code., Art.es, Spain, 2012 (english and español). Text of 34 pages. (Magazine)
- Zücher, Isabel, "Erscheinen und verschwinden im Haus der elektronischen Künste", Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, Basel, Switzerland, June 9th 2016 (deutsch). Text of 2 pages. (Newspaper)