SOUND ART
URUTAU . 2016
Sound intervention carried out in a public square, with 4 portable speakers on site, each one inside an object built as a sound expander in wood and plastic cone, all emitting the same sound.
The sound is a representation that I made with my voice of the song of the bird Urutau, which in some Brazilian regions, the popular belief believes that it brings bad luck, as it is a nocturnal song and of melancholic content. Some legends were also created around this bird. São Paulo - SP, 2016
Why does Leticia Rita scream? Or rather, what is the lament that comes out of his work Urutau, from the series Trail of the end of the world? Many stories surround the Urutau, a bird that goes unnoticed during the day as we walk through the field, so perfect that it is its stub camouflage. Its nocturnal habits keep its mystery, being finally perceived when it sings a sad and beautiful lament that some say is an annunciation of death. The “bird”, a wooden box with a black bugle through which sounds like the old ones Gramophones, tied to a tree, have the same mimetic power as the original Urutau, but not as a branch, but as one of the trinkets that focus on the urban view. During the day a battery is powered by a solar plate and at twilight an active mechanism the electronic singing, audible for the most attentive and for those who stroll through the plants of the first stretch of Cerrado Infinito, in the Pompéia neighborhood. It is to wonder why the first appearance of Urutau occurs justify located in the Cerrado Infinito, as if it were its first inhabitant. Leticia Rita's work thus inaugurates an unfolding of the project, where other artists are invited to relate to this built natural landscape, but… will there be time for others to participate? The bad omen of the tragic song may be the announcement of a possible end to the Cerrado Infinito, given the complexity and difficult understanding of bringing to light the “true” nature of São Paulo. Or it may be a conversation that reinforces its ghostly artificiality, upon awakening a biome irreparably lost. But Urutau has other charisms, for caboclos, it is also a symbol of strength and persistence in the way it protects itself from dangers and predators. The song, now like a cry, can be a so-called liberator of feelings hidden in the everyday fog. Perhaps it could be then as a master of ceremonies, inviting us to a ritual of entering the Cerrado Infinito and screaming loudly. It is only triggered when it gets dark, through a light sensor and charged through a solar plate.
Daniel Caballero
visual artist
Daniel Caballero
visual artist