In certain mountainous areas across the Mediterranean, villagers have inherited from their ancestors an ancient language that uses whistling as a means of communication. Originated as a way of messaging across mountains, this whistling technique can enunciate any word in any vocabulary in the world.
memory of, memory of, memory of (2016) is a sound work in which a poem on Echo and Narcissus is being whistled. The poem is an assemblage of existing texts written by poets such as Ovid and W. B. Yeats. Using the ancient whistling language, we recorded the poem in mount Olympus and then placed the sound in New York.
Watch the making of memory of, memory of, memory of
memory of, memory of, memory of was specially commissioned by the Onassis Foundation USA in conjunction with the exhibition Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus.
