VIS MAJOR - Sinking (teen)

Sinking (teen) is a live sound installation performed by thirteen members of a local teenage choir.

The singers stand in a circle at the centre of the exhibition space, performing a cappella Wrong by Depeche Mode. The song itself is structured as a list of errors: wrong choices, wrong reactions, wrong compositions.

Each performer repeats the song a number of times corresponding to their age.

Dressed entirely in black and wearing balaclavas that significantly limit their vision, the singers remain almost blind within the space.

The conductor stands in the centre of the circle, surrounded and in a sense captured by the choir.

He wears a black tailcoat whose structure recalls the reinforced padding of rugby uniforms. On his face he wears a fragile wearable sculpture made of glass: a grid inspired by the metal face guards used in rugby helmets. Along the central bar a row of glass teeth is mounted.

In sport such structures exist to protect the face from impact. Here the material reverses their function: if broken, the glass would cut the performer himself.

While conducting the choir, the conductor attempts to display this fragile and dangerous beauty to performers who can barely see him.

The singers gradually leave the space according to their age. The first to exit is the youngest, a fifteen-year-old boy. One by one the voices disappear until the oldest participant, a twenty-three-year-old girl, leaves the circle.

When the last voice disappears, only the conductor remains.

He conducts Wrong once more, this time in complete silence, before leaving the space as well, leaving no visible trace of the performance.