ABOUT PRIVILEGES (2015)
Site-Specific. Red Bull Station Collection, São Paulo.
PVC Sewage tubes, noise polluted avenue, sound proofed building, acoustic speakers. The installation is a series of connected PVC tubes passing through an abandoned old ventilation in the Red bull Station building. In 2012 this historical heritage site, dating from 1904, was bought and converted by Red Bull in a contemporary art and music space in São Paulo. The conversion included the sound proofing of the building which is located in one of the busiest, most sound polluted avenues of the city centre.
The tubes are mounted in an airway passage connecting the internal and external areas of the building. The outer tube faces the road outside and allows the air, therefore the sound, to travel through the wall, along the tube, into one of the foyers. The resulting effect is a discreet, ambient soundscape projected into the foyer, originated from the street noise filtered acoustically by the
material, length and width of the PVC tubes. This site-specific work makes audible the contradictory relationship of sound as medium. When
modified aesthetically it is welcomed and integrated into the contemporary art space whilst simultaneously being rejected by the building’s design. As a sound artist, commissioned by Red Bull’s 2015 residency program, this work is an institutional critique discussing the privileges associated with cultural work and international corporate funding in contemporary arts in Brazil.
