Maria Loura Estevão - S.O.S.
5 OCT - 4 DEC 2023
MAAT Gallery
Maria Loura Estevão's installation S.O.S. (Sirens Or Sirens) takes as its starting point the Homeric poem Ulysses in The Odyssey – and in particular the passage of Ulysses and his companions through the territory of the sirens – to thematise underwater noise pollution and the maritime passage of migrants and refugees through the Mediterranean.
Sound is the central element of the installation and this extends into the dimensions of the double meaning of the French word sirènes, which means both mermaids and sirens - united in the role that the artist attributes to the mermaids of Ulysses as being the first feminist echoes that sound warnings. The sound here has the meaning of an alarm.
The installation features underwater sounds from the Tagus estuary and images from the passive acoustic probe. Four Moog Thereminis (sound instruments that in this case represent mermaids/sirens that resonate when a movement passes through the sound wave field) will be hung from the ceiling according to the cardinal points; four (recovered) inflatable boats will be placed in the sound columns that allow you to feel the sound waves transmitted through the air.
Curator: João Pinharanda.
