VID VIDA VIDAJENA
Iván Navarro & Courtney Smith
January - April 2024
For three months, New York artists Iván Navarro and Courtney Smith transformed La Capilla Azul into a listening room for a new work of collaborative sound poetry, using compositional and participatory techniques they have developed collaboratively since they first began creating performative works a decade ago, in Chile and abroad, with small groups of active participants. The collective composition, performed over two consecutive days in public gatherings with Chilote musician Enrique Millán and eight participants from the Contuy community, was recorded live, then edited and mixed, with the resulting composition played continuously within the space for the duration of the exhibition.
Iván Navarro & Courtney Smith
Smith and Navarro name these small group activities carried out collectively and collaboratively as Konantü. The artists “imagine an art that can only be fully realized by its public participants, an art that is simultaneously created and consumed by its willing constituents.” Their engagement with sound poetry arises from their shared experiences of how Konantü's crowdsourced practice elicits spontaneous behavior and, in doing so, challenges conventional boundaries between language, music, and sound, equally for listeners, performers and musician, who will emphasize the dramatic, atmospheric dimension of the accordion, through wind sounds and sustained chords.
For La Capilla Azul, each collaborative performance was performed with the participation of eight vocalists. It was not a requirement, or even a preference, that any of the vocalists have training or experience in music, poetry or art. Each briefly rehearsed alongside the others and was then randomly assigned a personalized score, consisting of a detailed set of words from the dictionary of the Real Academia Española, many of which were obsolete or fallen into disuse. All Vid Vida Vidajena scores differ from each other, and the composition took the form of a ronda that moved clockwise from one participant to the next, with occasional interim passages by guest artist Enrique Millán on accordion.
Enrique Millán
Enrique Millán is a self-taught, blind musician, who since childhood has been fascinated with the music and festivities of Caguach. He has been recognized as one of the best interpreters and cultivators of the Chilote accordion tradition, and in 2017 released the album “El accordión del Archipiélago.” With this edition and other compositions, Millán tours Chiloé giving public concerts along with other musicians, and he has successfully disseminated his work by holding accordion workshops for young people and amateurs.
Part of Navarro and Smith's premise for their Capilla Azul project is that a new work of sound poetry can serve as a catalyst for a variety of classroom and public activities that in turn will bring new attention and exposure to experimental forms of literature and sound interpretation. The morphing of the interior of the chapel, from a space to experience art through visual perception into a small music chamber and listening station for visitors to enjoy a performance recorded within its four walls, helps strengthen the links between the chapel and its neighbors, who used this building for generations. In this context, the participation of Enrique Millán is key to giving attention to the rich tradition of the accordion within Chiloé.