How do you listen?

In ‘The Ear is a Muscle III', the artist Alina Ozerova invites visitors to experience sound playfully and physically. Think about it, there are very few situations in everyday life when it’s okay to be in a non-vertical position: sleeping in the bed, sick in the hospital, or working out in the gym. In public spaces we are expected to perceive art and culture in a vertical way. 

To question this, Ozerova creates situations for alternative, non-vertical modes of being and listening. She encourages the public to let sonic and physical experiences take over their hands, feet, bones, and body cavities. The setting of a ‘sonic gym’ is a humorous environment where no rules apply and your own body hosts the artistic experience.

What do you listen to?

For ‘This Mobile Art Gym’ Alina Ozerova chose the sounds reflecting on the subjects of transportation and economía popular (popular economy). These recordings come from Ecuador and Peru. They capture noisy environments of public transport: voices of commuters, the roaring of the bus engine, cars honking, and sonic appearances of bus vendors.

These vendors are people excluded from the traditional labor market. Their working place is a bus aisle or a busy intersection with traffic lights where they sell water, bananas, or small chocolates to the commuters.

They step in and out. The voice is their tool. All of them are performers not by calling but as a result of economic exclusion. Their work is a constant exercise, they are always in motion.