NATURE MANIFESTO
Björk and Aleph Molinari Immersive sound installation comprising 70 loudspeakers Duration: 3 min 40 sec 20 November – 9 December 2024 Centre Pompidou, Paris Presented as part of the forum “Biodiversity: What Culture for What Future?” Concept and text: Björk & Aleph Music written and composed by Björk Curated by: Chloé Siganos and Aleph Molinari Associate curator: Delphine Le Gatt Music computing (IRCAM): Robin Meier Wiratunga Sound engineer: Bergur Þórisson Animation: Sam Balfua Video editing: Santiago Molinari In partnership with D&B Audio and Southby Productions. https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/bjoerk-aleph Conceived as a post-optimistic manifesto on nature, this sound piece by Björk and Aleph addresses the unprecedented loss of biodiversity and the collapse of ecosystems. The work combines Björk’s voice, reading her manifesto, with the cries of extinct or endangered animals, harmonized with natural soundscapes. Envisioning a future where the resilience of biology forms new combinations in nature, the work gives voice to silent nature, transforming its quietude into sound and resonating within our collective imagination.
it is an emergency the apocalypse has already happened and how we will act now is essential after the mass extinction we will start anew our old comfort is gone we will parade with mutated crickets in glowing radio-active harvests migrate with wildebeests amongst endangered orangutans a new world with an emergence of assemblages and rhizomatic entanglements with the altered voice of a beluga and a dna-morphed seal we will settle in sound fields of mosquitoes we will find sensory reci-procity in all ecological connective tissues in a pioneering sound-strata of mutant peacocks, bees, and lemurs biology will reassemble in new ways and micro-organisms will mate with other life-forms to heal and adapt in fruiting bodies and fields of sensory information the web of life will unfold into a world of new solutions as basalt columns absorb carbon or as a lyrebird becomes a chainsaw life wins with or without us after plagues and pandemics there will be new modes of existence of weaving our bodies into relations with our surroundings of decomposing our old ways of life and escape the feedback loop with metabolic ingenuity the howl of our biological ancestry repossessed by animal spirits we remedy lost bird calls out of niche-replacements amongst a tapestry of beings a new bio-diversity is reached we will terraform the planet in a deep morpho-genesis from an animist volcanic island we will revel at doppler-effect dolphins speeding by unseen wonders blooming hyphean enigmatic entities the memory of our genes will form a call to action mold a new paris climate accord this time reachable reach let's reach it