“Último Esfuerzo Rural” by Simone Simons, Peter Bosch

Title:

Último Esfuerzo Rural

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Medium:

Mixed media installation

Artist Statement:

Último Esfuerzo Rural (‘Last Rural Effort’) was premiered in Valencia at the Ensems festival of contemporary music, in May 2004. It is composed of two rather different installations. Both produce sounds, big or little, always coarse, sensitive and individual. One part consists of maximum nine giant zambombas (lions roars), made of barrels, measuring 1m30 and played by pneumatic cylinders. The other part are hayforks which scratch on metal plates or glass. Both machines have such a peculiar sound world, that its origin cannot be other than the countryside. A feeling which comes out of the deepest inside, like the braying of a donkey. The hayforks make up a small machine with a long-range energy radiation while the barrels, on the contrary, compose a grotesque machine with a relatively small energy radiation (when not amplified). The minimum with the maximum performance, or the maximum with the minimal performance, the result is similar: In this paradox poetry is born.

Technically both machines span and unite the rural, industrial and computerised eras. Mentally they predominates the rural thought. The rural world is ‘self-thoughtful’: The individual himself looks for simple, but creative and playful solutions for the problems that happen in the world surrounding him (with sweat, strength and courage.) A state of mind that is disappearing in our globalised world. We do not want to romanticise rural life but the original thought and strength of the individual. We think this is how the creation of our work takes place. Último Esfuerzo Rural continues the vibratory tradition, which characterises a great number of our previous works. The sound colour of the work is a mixture of very low frequencies, even inaudible ones, with atonal scratching.