HALA WARDÉ with
SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE,
A Roof For Silence
2021

Lebanese Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (IT)

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Artwork by
HALA WARDÉ

Sound Composition by
SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE

with Lucy Railton (Cello), Daisuke Tadokoro (Piano), additional field recordings by Nicolas Becker.

How can we construct a roof for silence? Can we create a sonic space where emptiness is imagined as a pillar, and where the notions of silence and contemplation become the foundations for an architecture? Are we able to hear the resonant frequency of an object that’s alive, ancient, and a void, all in one?

Soundwalk Collective’s composition for Hala Wardé’s ‘A Roof For Silence’ is inspired by the centrepieces of the Venice Biennale’s Lebanese Pavilion: the thousand-year-old olive trees of Bchaaleh, a remote village in the Batroun region of Lebanon. These trees of wisdom are silent witnesses of permanence and fragility: their natural formations evoke and elude gravity at once, as they live and breathe simultaneously in the past, present and future. They exist beyond the grasp of our concept about time and space, still producing fruits yet stoically standing, unmoved for over a century. The sound piece is composed of two chapters, ‘Falling Into Time’ featuring Lucy Railton on cello, and Antiforms featuring Daisuke Tadokoro on piano, reflecting the notion of the olive tree as a bridge between these two worlds of presence and void.

‘Falling Into Time’ slowly immerses us into the ground; roots grow deeply within the earth and natural matter, every day, hour, minute, second. The sound of a vibrating cello connects with the resonant frequency of the olive tree, evoking a timeless space where presence and void coexist.

‘Antiform’, a piece inspired by Paul Virilio’s concept, evokes the sky and the idea of expanse, anti-gravity and elevation. We remember Virilio’s words: “where there is a sentient object, being or thing, the space is no more, we take away a volume from it, by this very act we give it a shape: the Antiform.” All elements let go of structure and become informal and abstract; the improvised piano loses order and breaks free from existing patterns.

Composed and produced by Soundwalk Collective for Hala Wardé
Modular synthesizers, electronics and field recording by Soundwalk Collective (Stephan Crasneanscki & Simone Merli)
Cello – written and performed by Lucy Railton
Piano – written and performed by Daisuke Tadokoro
Additional field recordings by Nicolas Becker
Mix by Tobias Freund at Non Standard Studios, Berlin
Mastering by Noel Summerville at 3345 Mastering, London
Design by Studio Pensom

Sound technology by L-Acoustics