Historic memory
2001-2003
Women against Francoism
Between 2001 and 2004 I produced two works in the electronic studio LIEM at the Museo Reina Sofía Madrid in collaboration with the spanish historian Fernanda Romeu Alfaro, author of the book El Silencio Roto - Mujeres contra el Franquismo (El Silencio Roto - Women against Francoism) based on oral testimonies.
DESIRES, STONES, SKY IN SHREDS
Republican Women in the Resistance, 2002
Electroacoustic music installation and interviews
Premiere: 2003, Faculty of Fine Arts, Cuenca
SKY OF BLUE FISHES - The Thirteen Roses
Electroacoustic music and original documents, 2003
Vocals: Ángeles García-Madrid, Eva Varela Lasheras and Ana Hernández
Cello: Anna Carewe
Premiere: 2004, Entredos, Madrid. Broadcast on RNE Radio Clásica, 2004.
Published on CD in 2004
Faculty of Fine Arts Cuenca, presentation of the book El Silencia Roto - Mujeres contra el franquismo (Broken Silence - Women against Francoism) by Fernanda Romeu, El Viejo Topo, 2002
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Cover of the CD SKY OF BLUE FISHES - The Thirteen Roses, 2004
WOMEN AGAINST FRANCOISM
In 2001, I worked in the electronic studio LIEM at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid/Spain for several weeks. The survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Irmgard Konrad, had already told me that her brother fought in the Spanish Civil War and fell in the battle of the Ebro.
I sought information at the Women's Bookshop and was put in touch with Fernanda Romeu Alfaro, historian and author of the book El Silencio Roto - Mujeres contra el Franquismo (Broken Silence - Women against Francoism). Equally interested in oral testimonies and especially in women's voices, we collaborated in the production of two works combining experimental music with original documents collected and published by Fernanda Romeu Alfaro.
DESIRES, STONES, SKY IN SHREDS - Republican Women in the Resistance is an installation of spatial electroacoustic music and interviews by Fernanda. This work was premiered in 2003 at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca in conjunction with an event to present the book El Silencia Roto by Fernanda Romeu.
SKY OF BLUE FISH - The Thirteen Roses
Our second collaboration was based on original documents published in Fernanda's book: the last letters from Las Ventas prison of Julita Conesa, one of the Thirteen Roses, shot after the end of the Civil War in August 1939.
The radio play Cielo de Peces Azules - Las Trece Rosas (SKY OF BLUE FISHES - The Thirteen Roses) interweaves these letters read by actress Eva Varela Lasheras, a poem by cellmate Rafaela González spoken by Ana Hernández and a present-day interview with witness Ángeles García Madrid with an electroacoustic composition.
This work was premiered on 14 April 2004 in Entredos Madrid in the presence of many witnesses of the anti-Francoist resistance. The same year it was broadcast on RNE Radio Clásica, performed at La Caracola in Lavapiés and a CD was released.
Musical avantgarde
Ebba Rohweder has composed this musical installation "Deseos, Piedras, Cielo a Jirones" ( Desires, Stones, Heaven in Shreds), based on the work of Romeu, using the most modern electronic techniques. Part of the installation are 6 interviews made by Romeu, which are simultaneously and continuously broadcast from 6 loudspeakers placed in the hall at the visitors' ear level. The basis of the electronic music is analogue flute and voice sounds, which Rohweder has processed with the help of the computer in such a way that in some moments the origin of the sounds can be recognised.
The work was composed in 2001 at LIEM-CDMC in Madrid and the mix of the spatial sound in 2002 at the University of Berlin |