The Crossing is the first artistic creation of the TIMES project, commissioned by four festivals: Unsound, Semibreve, Berlin Atonal, and Sónar. As an ambitious multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary work, presented in two separate chapters and performances, The Crossing involves artists, and researchers from across Europe and beyond. Both performances will be presented at the festivals involved in the commissioning process throughout 2024 and 2025.

The golden thread of the project focuses on the nature of borders and the complex emotional psychodynamics experienced by migrants. The sites representing Europe’s current political landscape are not always the obvious ones; cities, parliaments, universities, and workplaces. 

Politics can also be read against the grain by examining those locations often incorrectly perceived as apolitical, lying outside human history and in the margins rather than at the centre of our collective political lives.

Białowieża: Chris Watson & Izabela Dłużyk

The Białowieża Forest, a site of exceptional natural beauty that has become a symbol of wider geopolitical tensions.

One such site identified by the four commissioning festivals is Białowieża Forest, which stretches across Poland and Belarus. It is the last remaining example of Europe’s pristine and unspoilt natural landscape. Over the last hundred years, much like a great part of the ecosystems of the Earth, it has been the scene of a series of events that have threatened its equilibrium and survival.

In recent years, its wilderness has once again placed it at the centre of a humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the border region, mainly due to the passage of refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach one of the possible gateways into the European Union. What kind of life and pulse is there in such a place, where millennia of history coexist with yet another sad episode of our civilisation?

This site provides the geographical grounding for the first chapter of this project, called Białowieża. ​​Chris Watson and Izabela Dłużyk, two masters of the art of recording and reinterpreting nature, have plunged into the heart of the Białowieża Forest this year in order to bring us a chunk of its breathing, alternating between the magnificent gush of natural life and the howl of death. The multi-channel sonic exploration and installation, which takes place in the dark, is also a rare opportunity to travel back in time.

A Forbidden Distance: Saint Abdullah, Eomac and Rebecca Salvadori

A sense of self in relation to processes of displacement.

In the second chapter of The Crossing we return to the notion of border, specifically to its political aspects, as an arbitrary division of a territory that creates an impenetrable line of demarcation. A Forbidden Distance poses biographical questions on the meaning of an individual’s life when faced with the need to move, forced into the nomadic currents of our times.

The audio-visual project itself is an example of collaboration that transcends borders and nationalities—brothers Mohammed and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh (Saint Abdullah) are Iranian-Canadian, Ian McDonnel (Eomac) as Irish, and London-based filmmaker Rebecca Salvatori is Italian-Australian—all working together for the first time.

Artists

Chris Watson

UK

Chris Watson was a founding member of the influential Sheffield based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals and habitats from around the world. As a freelance composer and sound recordist Watson specialises creating spatial sound installations which feature a strong sense and spirit of place.

Izabela Dłużyk

Poland

Izabela Dłużyk is a Polish nature sound recordist. She has recorded many birds including cranes in the Warta Mouth, cormorants on the Vistula Spit, geese in the Beka reserve, whooper swans in the Słupia Valley and storks in Żywków on the border with Russia among the many others. She was named to BBC 100 Women list in November 2023.

Saint Abdullah

Tehran, Iran (born) - NYC, USA (based)

Formed by two brothers, Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh, raised primarily in the West, away from their family in Iran, Saint Abdullah is designed somewhat as an introduction to a different palette of sounds, creating a charged and anxious, but still assertive mixture of minimalist dub and Iranian samples. The two are particularly drawn to the sounds associated with Shia Islam, predominant in Iran but a minority in the broader Muslim world.

Eomac

Wicklow, Ireland

Eomac aka Ian McDonnell is an Irish producer living in Wicklow, near Dublin. The Eomac sound draws from obscure samples and raw sound design in an ongoing exploration of intense, visceral music for body and soul. Alongside his solo releases as Eomac, he’s also one half of the duos Lakker, noeverything and Lena Andersson.

Rebecca Salvadori

London, UK

Rebecca Salvadori is a London-based artist working at the intersection between video art and documentary. She has a long experience in filming environments with a focus on non-hierarchical/chronological layering and sequencing of audio to footage. Her film works act as constellations of highly personal and wilfully elusive heterogeneous elements: multifaceted portraits of moments, people, and environments that can be approached from different angles as they move between personal and transpersonal scales.

We were particularly excited to work with other festival curators directly on a collaborative project. Being able to benefit from the personal connections and experiences of other festivals added layers of depth and complexity to the types of performances we were able to create and made the process more fun and surprising.

Laurens & Harry – Curators for Berlin Atonal

“By joining forces, we can inspire each other to create solid artistic projects and delve into topics that are important to us and our audiences.
Working together makes the curatorial process more interesting. In this case, all the artists involved in the project play a key role in portraying different perspectives on an important topic: borders in today’s world.”

Sónar

Commissioned by

Berlin Atonal DE

Berlin Atonal is one of the most influential festivals for sonic and visual art internationally. Renowned as a leading platform in the field of experimental music and art, the festival has a sharp focus on presenting new work and has hosted over 900 world premiers and commissions – making it one of the leading platforms in the field.

Atonal has become one of the most visible German and international independent institutions that focuses on the intersection between art and music.

Unsound PL

Unsound focuses on a broad swath of contemporary music — emerging, experimental, and leftfield — whose sweep doesn’t follow typical genre constraints. Influential, it has developed a reputation for always being ahead of the curve and serves as an annual industry meeting – a platform for an exchange of artistic ideas for musicians, visual artists, curators, journalists, record label owners and booking agents.

As well as spotlighting emerging artists, Unsound commissions and tours new shows and encourages transborder collaborations, adapts and reimagines abandoned spaces for concerts and club nights, and is known for its sound inspired Ephemera perfume project.

Semibreve PT

Semibreve is a exploratory electronic music and digital art festival taking place in Braga, Portugal. Since 2011, Semibreve has consistently presented a forward-thinking programme featuring some of the most revered electronic music and cross-disciplinary work by artists from around the world, as well as maintaining an active role in the promotion of the digital arts in Portugal.

Sónar ES

Sónar is a pioneering festival that’s reflected the evolution and expansion of electronic music and digital culture since its first edition in 1994. Each year, Sónar converts Barcelona into a focal point for music lovers, artists and professionals from across the world, drawn to the multiple stages and venues of the Fira Barcelona by the festival’s innovative content, format, and celebratory atmosphere.