Another Solo in the Doldrums (Extended Play)

This work consists of a transparent drum equipped with an integrated loudspeaker that emanates low frequency sounds inaudible to the human ear from soundtracks to films screened at the Centre Pompidou in 2012. These sounds create vibrations on the skin of the drum that make the sticks roll about, apparently on their own, as if moved by an invisible force. The instruments’ activation thus imbues the work with the memory of a past exhibition.

The “doldrums” mentioned by the artist in the title refer to zones of equatorial calm in the Atlantic Ocean, in which the winds can unforeseeably die down completely. Dreaded by sailors, sailboats can become becalmed in them for days, with no option other than to wait for the return of uncertain breezes.

Visitors are in turn confronted with this sense of waiting and uncertainty, which is expressed by an absence of sound, even though the elements emitting the sounds (the drum, the drumsticks, and their movement) remain mysteriously visible.