STRATA is the fifth performance art and film hybrid by artist duo VestAndPage (Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes). It is a film of philosophical, poetic action exploring caves as proto-spaces for altered states and sites of knowledge-making and human becoming. Some of the oldest known examples of human figurative artworks have been found within the caves of the Swabian Jura in Germany. These are the products of the Ice Age, dating back 33,000 to 43,000 years. VestAndPage convened an interdisciplinary gathering of over 20 artists and scientists to engage with these unique spaces and places and challenge central ontological and social issues. 

From December 12 to 15, 2024, as part of IX Venice International Performance Art Week “Portals and Constellations”, STRATA was reimagined as a video and sound installation in the European Cultural Centre (ECC) - Palazzo Mora. 

The soundscape for the exhibition by Douglas Quin is conceived as a complement to the film. Rather than recreate the film's soundtrack, the installation focused on conveying some of the experience of the caves themselves with audio gathered 'in situ' from performances to soundscapes. The approach to the audio for the gallery installation involved drawing from the many hours of location recordings, deconstructing and recomposing the layers and sonic strata to intimate the resonances of Deep Time and collective consciousness. 

Executive Producers: VestAndPage (Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes)
Producer: Douglas Quin

Featuring music and soundings by Aldo Aliprandi (self-made, 'trichord' instrument), Andreas Bauer Kanabas (voice) and Stephan Knies (violin), Aisha Ryannon Pagnes (voice), Ralf Peters (voice), Susanne Weins (voice), as well as cave environments and processed soundscapes. Photo © Fenia Kotsopoulou.

For more information about the project, please visit:

www.stratafilm.de
https://veniceperformanceart.org/the-art-week/portals-and-constellations-2024

STRATA Soundscape

This is an excerpt of an environmental work focussing on wind in Bogong Village.

Wind (Excerpt)

The piece was commissioned by the Studio Akustische Kunst at Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Köln. 1998. Produced by Klaus Schöning.

Douglas Quin, Composition, Soundscapes, Electronics, Processing
F. Gerard Errante, Clarinet, Synthesizer
Henry Kaiser, Guitar
Bill Douglass, Bass and Flutes
Gino Robair, Percussion

Soundscapes, electroacoustic instruments and data-driven electronic score from ice core data.

Australis/Borealis

Douglas Quin is a music composer, sound artist and designer, wildlife recordist, public radio commentator and educator. For the past 40 years he has traveled widely documenting the natural soundscape—from Antarctic ice to Arctic tundra and from African savannah to Amazon rainforest. Photo: Fenia Kotsopoulou.

STRATA Soundscape

Douglas Quin

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