Gil Delindro (PT, 1989)
Residency period: June-December 2019
In 1826 on Lake Geneva, Jean Colladon and Francois Sturm made the first recorded attempt to determine the speed of sound in water. This was the first underwater acoustic study ever developed, and the departing point for research during my 6-month residency at La Becque. My main goal was to understand how sound (in its full spectrum) can be fundamental for our understanding of space, focusing on the topography of Lake Geneva and its glacial origins.
Rhone is the main project resulting from this research, a documentary installation that uses sound to study the origins of Lake Geneva in its relation to glacial erosion and sedimentary formation.
The starting point is a series of sound recordings and video stills captured in three consecutive locations, the ice tunnels of the Rhone glacier, Lake Geneva and Genetti, an industrial gravel site that lies on the banks of the Rhone. By using high sensibility hydrophones and sensors, these recordings captured different vibrations, including very low Infra-sounds that occur within the glacier’s calving.
Based on these documentary archives, I created a new kinetic media installation that uses the recorded infrasound vibrations to interact with glacial sediments in real time, a piece that is documentary as well as reactive and autonomous. Sound is the conductive and most complex element of the landscapes presented in this work, allowing us to access intangible and otherwise imperceptible moments in the narrative.
Gil Delindro is a sound and media artist who distinguishes himself by his research on organic elements, ephemeral events and intangible processes in nature. His practice is based upon film, installation, sound performance and field research, facing themes such as bioacoustics, animism, decay, ephemerality and geology. For some years, his work has been widely recognized in Europe and he has been commissioned by festivals such as MusikProtokoll, Novas Frequências, CynteArt, Athens Digital, ARS Electronica and Submerge.