Way to Silence is a project inspired in the concept of ethnosphere, idea coined by anthropologist Wade Davis. The ethnosphere is ̈a cultural web of life ̈ and can be defined ̈as being the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, intuitions and inspirations brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness. ̈
Just as the biosphere, the ethnosphere is today severely compromised, definitely at an even greater rate of loss. This can be seen clearly when observing the loss of languages around the world.
More than being a plain recollection of vocabulary words and grammar rules, languages represent the culture of a given population, its beliefs and identity. The sonority of a language expresses the soul of its speakers. Its loss involves the loss of their songs, their tales and legends, their wisdom. It ́s a loss that cannot be quantified.
The project Way to Silence is neither a study nor a catalogue of languages on the verge of extinction, it does depart from ̈material ̈ that is in danger of disappearing, verbal material of different origins will be intertwined, put together in order to create a new sound, a new language that not being understood by our brains can only generate new and unknown reactions, emotions, on the listener. The interpretation that the listener will give to these new phrases will be built either consciously or unconsciously from the listener ́s own culture, from what he or she has learnt from his or her own language.
It ́s this interaction what will be at the core of the project. The dialogue between a far and probably unknown culture and a listener that gives meaning to sounds, pauses, breaths and tones, according to what fills his or her cultural luggage.
What will these new lecture parameters reveal about us as listeners?
Conception, composition, performance : Vincent Martial
Dramaturgy, Direction : Paula Vargas
Composition, performance: Sergio Sasso
Construction, performance : Gabriel Hermand-Priquet
Programming : Julien Thomas
Production : Sonambule
Coproductions : La pop, Matrice Atelier B
Supports : Drac Ile de France, Région Ile de France, Le Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève, La Batysse
