Qualia

Five women artists living in Brussels; all raised in several languages; each one from a different cultural background. They tell, in their mother tongue, a vital moment, an intense sensorial experience that left a physical imprint. One of them is not telling the truth though. How to transmit this experience only through language when their words are translated, albeit properly by another woman?

Qualia questions the body/mind problem, the impossibility of sharing with others the exact perception of a color, of the temperature of a hand or the taste of wine. Qualia questions the use of sound in storytelling, its power to reach the subconscious, its power to provoke physical reactions and to trigger mental images. Do you see what I mean?

Among the group of five women, four have their origins in a Mediterranean country. They speak their mother language: Zahava Seewald, Hebrew; Meryam Bayram, Turkish; Sonia Pastecchia, Italian; Charo Calvo the author, Spanish. Kitty Crowther, is from the North, she’s born in Belgium from Swedish mother and English father. Each of their stories happen in their family land: Israel, South Turkey, Italy and Spain, with each particular soundscapes and colours.

Voice and texts : Kitty Crowther, Zahava Seewald, Meryam Bayram, Sonia Pastecchia, Charo Calvo.
Translation and French voice: Laurence Vielle
Translation and English voice: Caroline Daish
Recordings: Charo Calvo, Bastien Hidalgo
Mastering: Bastien Hidalgo
Studio: Acsr and author’s studio.
Produced by ABC Soundproof Australia with the support of ACSR Belgium and FACR de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

Charo Calvo is a Spanish woman composer, sound designer and professor of composition for the media. She lives in Brussels. Her work is widely diffused on international venues and festivals, dance performances, theater, film and radio. At the moment she is composing the music for the new dance performance by Wim Vandekeybus in collaboration with IRCAM Paris. She received the Palma Ars Acustica 2014 of the EBU and was selected for Prix Europa and Phonurgia Nova with Phonobiographie #1. From June 2017 she will be an artist in residence in Berlin selected by DAAD (Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes ) for a whole year.