Siren was born on the ground formed
by the concept of the group exhibition Motion / Labour /
Machinery, curated by Manuel Segade in cooperation with artistic
director Mariette Dölle and curator Jesse van Oosten at TENT, Rotterdam
in 2015. The artwork sprang from the testing of air-raid sirens in the
Netherlands at 12.00 sharp on the first Monday of every month. This
emergency alarm was adopted during the cold war and remained in
operation. The artwork produced as a result of my research is based on
fieldwork, oral history and soundscapes collection, as well as
participatory observation research on the thriving multicultural
population of the city framing the biggest port on this side of the
planet.
Siren took the form of an installation consisting of sound, text, vinyl with embedded wood print, vitrine.
For ages, Sirens - those female mythological creatures with human head
and the body of a bird - have led sailors to catastrophe with their
mesmerising voices.
During the Cold War, Sirens became a common presence in the Netherlands,
emitting signals to warn of imminent danger. Throughout the years, the
locals have appreciated them highly, considering their repetitive
rehearsals as part of their identity.
The melodic warning of the Siren of Rotterdam, albeit always the same,
is interpreted differently by different groups of people: it breaks down
the distinction between the Native and the Other and, paradoxically,
gives rise to new forms of segregation.
Some inhabitants experience her song as a familiar routine. For others,
it functions as a reminder of outlived traumatic experiences; bringing
together, in a state of threat, those who lived through World War II or
the wars in Indonesia, Eritrea, Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Israel,
Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria… When it is played, the Siren dissolves
time and space for the moment of its duration. It conceals a challenge
to the historical and social formation of citizenship.
Siren, 2015, sound, text, vinyl with embedded wood print, vitrine.