Aleksander Motturi
Daito Manabe
Tystnadens reliker
Under vissa förhållanden blir ett föremål en relik. Medan tystnaden kan vara ohörbar, ouppmärksammad, som en anonym skelettdel som förmultnar på havets botten, intar reliken ofta själva mittpunkten i vallfartsorter. Den samlar människor kring en martyr och bildar på så vis deras historiska fästpunkt. Liksom en substridsdel, en blindgångare av en klusterbomb ligger reliken nedgrävd i marken i väntan på att aktiveras.
Ordet härstammar från latinets reliquiae som betyder kvarlevor. Vad som dröjer sig kvar är martyrens lidanden, en avrättad trosbekännares blodsutgjutelse, en oförglömlig oförrätt. Relikvarier rymmer föremål (delar av korset, svepningar, etc) som står i en kontagiös förbindelse med martyren, det reproduceras bilder av martyren i olika ikonografiska format. I lika hög grad som reliken slår sig till ro i det hegemoniska språket blir den en omutlig del i återskapandet av dess inneboende motsättningar.
Tystnadens reliker ter sig vid första anblicken som en omöjlighet, en självmotsägelse. Ty den efterlämnar inga reliker. Den låter sig inte uttolkas. Den drömmer inte ens om ett nytt språk in i vilket kvarlevor av våldets historia inte förmår tränga in. Tystnaden utgör ljudens absorberande bakgrund, den plats där de föds, det som ljuden bryter. Tystnaden bär vittnesbörd om det som sägs.
Relics of Silence
In some circumstances an object turns into a relic. As silence can be unhearable, unrecognizable, like an anonymous skeleton mouldering at the bottom of the sea, the relic occupies the very centre of pilgrimage. It gathers people around a martyr and forms its historical focus point. The relic – a subwarhead, a dud of a cluster-bomb – lies buried in the ground waiting to be activated.
The word is derived from reliquiae which is latin for survivals. What lingers is the martyr’s suffering, bloodshed from a executed confessor. Reliquaries hold objects (the Cross, cerements, etc) that stand in a contagious relationship to the martyr. Images of the martyr are reproduced in all kinds of iconographical formats. As the relics are gradually incorporated into the hegemonical language they become an uncompromizing part of its inherent oppositions.
Therefore the relics of silence appears at first sight as an impossibility, a contradiction in terms. For silence does not leave relics. It does not render itself to interpretation. Silence does not even dream of a language from which survivals of violence are excluded. Silence is the absorbing background of sounds, the place where they are born. Silence is what the sounds are breaking. It bear witness to what is said.
Aleksander Motturi (b 1970)
Writer and originator/curator of Clandestino Festival – an annual alternative music event in Sweden. He presented his doctoral thesis Filosofi vid mörkrets hjärta – om Wittgenstein, Frazer och vildarna (Philosophy at the Heart of Darkness – on Wittgenstein, Frazer and the Savages) at the Department of Philosophy, Åbo Akademi, Finland in 2003. His latest book Etnotism – en essä om mångkultur, tystnad och begäret efter mening (Etnicism – en Essay on Multiculturalism, Silence and the Craving for Meaning) was released in May 2007 by Glänta Produktion. Based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Daito Manabe (b 1975) Artist, programmer and designer. B of Mathemati[k]s at Tokyo University of Science. After working as a system engineer and a programmer, he graduated from IAMAS (International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences) in 2004. Redefining the existent media and technologies from unique angles, he has been active in the various fields, such as art, design, and even research and development. He produces the output of sounds, images and light through analyzing and transforming the numerical values gained from various sensors and input devices. He is also an internationally acting turntablist and sound artist using surround/oscillation/super low frequency technology and pursuing sensual peculiarity, commonality and interaction. Based in Tokyo city, Japan.