“Sueños de rana” is a site-specific installation for the courtyard of the Museo de Arte in Santa Marta, Colombia with 16 mid-range loudspeakers, 2 full-range loudspeakers and 8 channel audio.
The sound installation “Sueños de rana” is based on sound recordings made in May 2022 in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and is an echo of the installation “Chundua – Forschträume” presented in Bonn from 31.08.2022 to 29.01.2023.
In 2022 the Beethoven Foundation Bonn appointed Robin Minard Bonn City Sound Artist at the start of the international project “echoes – soundforum bonn” with the annual theme of biodiversity. In close cooperation with the Museum Koenig, the natural history and research museum in Bonn, and the Atelopus Foundation in Santa Marta, the Robin Minard travelled together with biologists from the Universidad del Magdalena on a biological research expedition to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of the Sierra Nevada.
During his visit to the region, he not only recorded the sounds of the rainforest – especially the great diversity of frogs that live there – but also conducted interviews with anthropologists and biologists from the Universidad del Magdalena, as well as with spiritual leaders (mamos) of the indigenous population.
For the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada, frogs are associated with water, the source of life, and are therefore considered particularly sacred animals. For generations, they have listened to the sounds of the frogs and derived from them, for example, when they should hold spiritual ceremonies or sow their seeds. They also understand the frogs as indicators of the state of our environment.
Minard’s installation “Sueños de rana” combines the sounds of the rainforest with the voices of Arhuaco Mamo Camilo Izquierdo, Wiwa Mamo Romualdo Gil and Arhuaco elder María del Carmen Villafaña who translated into Spanish for Mamo Camilo Izquierdo (who speaks in his native language). The sound installation, embedded in the square of tropical trees and plants in the center of the courtyard of the Museo de Arte, reflects indigenous concern for the survival of nature as well as our shared responsibility for its preservation.
With thanks to: Mamo Camilo Izquierdo, Mamo Romualdo Gil, María del Villafañe, Lucelly Torres Villafañe, Hans Valero, Alejandro José Suárez Forero, Luis Alberto Rueda Solano, José Luis Pérez-Gonzáles, Hernan Darío Martínez Urrea, and Fundación Atelopus.
Presentations
- 2022: Museo de Arte, Santa Marta, Colombia (site specific). Opening: 27.10.2022 / Exhibition 28.10.-04.12.2022 / Extended to 28.01.2023
