Between the Heard – a sound installation by Renzo Spiteri

Between the Heard’ is a sound installation by Maltese sound artist, composer and musician Renzo Spiteri that invites members of the public to listen in to Valletta. It captures the mood and movement of the city through sound, pushing people to reconsider their perceptions and experience of Malta’s capital city.

The installation is running until 15 January.

In this piece, the picture that is painted of the city is stripped of historical context and visual landscape, so that many of the associations that we normally make with particular spaces are placed at a remove from our experience of it in the present moment. Different stories surface as we overhear and listen to the noise, echoes, vibrations, and conversations of people passing through or residing there. What remains of Valletta if you strip it of its elegant baroque palaces and tight interlocked symmetrical streets? What remains if you unlearn the history of its birth and growth?

Experiencing the city purely through sound opens up many possibilities. As sound travels through space, connecting and rewriting it, we are invited to ask – What happens to the city when instead of being seen and inscribed, it is heard and allowed to flow? Time and space are reconfigured both in real life and through the art piece.

Between the Heard is designed as an audio sculpture emitted from 5 speakers in the round. It draws on the Modernist movement that experimented with artistic form and content in order to engage with the social and cultural fabric of the time.

Renzo Spiteri creates work independently and in collaboration with visual artists, cultural organisations, dancers, writers and galleries. As an internationally active artiste, Renzo is a versatile arts practitioner renowned for his creative use of sound, whose work bears a distinct sonic signature characterised by strong sculptural and dimensional aspects.

‘Between the Heard’ is set up at Spaces C1 and C2 (Upper Galleries) at St. James Cavalier and will run between the 24th December 2016 and 15th January 2017. People are invited to listen to ‘Between The Heard’ at any time during St James' opening hours since the 20minute sound art piece is on a loop but can be experienced differently every time it is heard. Warning: The work contains explicit language.

‘Between the Heard’ is part of the project ‘Quintessence’, a Valletta and Open Works Lab collaboration and part of the Valletta – European Capital of Culture 2018 Programme. Between the Heard is also part of Spazju Kreattiv programme and is supported by Malta Arts Fund, Arts Council Malta.