4.20.2004

Immersive, multi-channel sound, public space intervention.
Dimensions: variable.
Duration: undetermined.

Eje Central and Juárez Avenue – where Palacio de Bellas Artes is situated – are two of downtown Mexico City's main axis. It is here that the so-called high and low culture collide: the street trumpet musicians in front of the main opera house; formal and informal commerce coexist with the Banco de México building; bookstores along with street vendors are juxtaposed. This corner is also the primary route utilised by political demonstrators on their way to the Zócalo and National Palace.

Taking this thriving and complex area as its base, with 4.20.2004 I transformed the high noise polluted public space by constructing a complex and realistic – almost tangible – sound pattern. 4.20.2004 subverts and expands the public sound space by implementing multi-layered sounds in the open space. These abstract ambient noises provide the foundation for 4.20.2004. Still, the complexity of the work grows out of the artist's incorporation of hyper-realistic sounds – thunder, rain, helicopters – all of which intervene onto the subtext of the existing abstracted soundscape to create a work that subtly calls attention to the sounds we are immersed in but rarely pay attention to. The passer-by questions whether the sounds they hear really exist – is rain approaching or is there a helicopter overhead?

4.20.2004 uses sound in a tangible way surrounding the viewer in a sensorial experience where noises are felt and not just heard, intensifying both the aural and physical experience of the vigorous energy surrounding the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Artwork commissioned to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of Palacio de Bellas Artes | Curators Andrew Chetty and José Wolffer | Mexico City, Mexico.

Luz María Sánchez