Belgrade, Urban Incubator           

In the autumn of 2015 I took a part in Sound Development Project, organised by Heller Enterprises team from Zurich.

My first piece during that project was a sound intervention. I have recreated an atmosphere of an Orthodox Church in a bike workshop in order to send prayers to the recovering bicycles.
Photo by Nicholas Schärer.

Divine Liturgy for Broken Bicycles (excerpt)

You Hear … You Listen …

Expedition Observation by Uwe Lützen

Imagine you sit, say, on a park bench. You look down because some pigeons are gathering curiously around your feet. You see how they come closer, like they expect you to drop some food as so many obviously did sitting on that bench before you. The pigeons’ soft, cooing sounds create a smooth atmosphere. Now imagine there suddenly is a voice behind you. Some determined male voice. It doesn’t matter what he says. It might even be some language you don’t understand. Still, its presence makes you want to turn your head. — Only, you can’t. Your gaze stays with the pigeons around your feet. It’s as if it were a fixed camera angle. Imagine it is. You start focussing on that voice, its tonality, its mood … What would the character behind that voice be like? What would he look like? And as you focus, the pigeons around your feet fade from your attention. Like when dusk slowly turns the world around you to black. Along with the male voice, there is also a female voice. They chat. They seem to be acquainted. Friendly. Intimate even. Other sounds join in. A waiter collects his change … A scooter passes by … A baby is whining … The wind in the trees … As if every sound that enters shares the same stage. And they might pass quickly or linger a bit. However, they always carry some story, event or secret in them. The mind completes what is happening. Still, it’s not fiction, nor is it documenting the sounds alone. … You hear — you listen … the story continues outside your field of vision. It grows bigger than your gaze. Even outside the space you are sitting in. Once you find the right spot and you have the patience, the world will tell you a story. Marcin spends his time recording the sounds that happen around us every day. He waits for something to happen … he records every day sounds. Once woven together, these acoustic impressions will make experiences that suggest some kind of story. His sounds(capes) of Belgrade and Athens will serve as a backdrop for his future projects — that will also include films.

This is an excerpt from a book published in Zurich in 2016. The full chapter is available here:

http://sound-development-city.com/assets/Document/30/SDC_2015_Publication-Digital_Knyziak_Marcin.pdf