Interruptions from Speech

Abstract

Based on the analysis of a lullaby composed by the artists María Salgado and Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, this article examines the lullaby genre in relation to the interruption caused by the pandemic and discusses how these artists bend the genre slightly insofar as they invite their audience to discover new potential worlds rather than avoiding and soothing danger. The first part of the text develops a relationship with the artists’ recovery of the insurgent sounds found in folk songs, as places that preserve the memory of futures that never materialized: specifically, a pamphlet created by Guy Debord of fragments of folk songs, including García Lorca’s ‘Nana de Sevilla’ (‘Seville Lullaby’). By distorting this melody and the folk lyrics, the artists compose a new lullaby for an era that can no longer sleep. Their aim is not so much to dwell on this loss but to explore the strength of our sound.

Lullabies are considered a minor music genre, but the hypothesis of this text is that they have a collective strength that appears when they are sung. The politics of speech have traced a categorical social division between those who speak well and those who speak badly, between those who have a right to a voice and those who remain outside the distribution of words. And yet it is precisely in the so-called ‘poor’ verbal constructions that a richer, denser and more unique meaning emerges. That is the interest behind this artistic experiment that explores the ways in which we produce and perceive the interruptions that arise in sound, music and speech as a means of understanding where imbalances occur, or may occur, where it is possible to activate another sensitive imagination.

Notes

1 Bergen Assembly is a perennial model for art production structured around public events that take place in the city of Bergen every three years. Guided by a convener, each edition of Bergen Assembly may take on distinctly different shapes and formats, thanks to a new and adventurous model the convener puts forth. See more at https://bit.ly/3JxzE2o, accessed 3 March 2021.

2 María Salgado and Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, ‘Nana de esta pequeña era / This little era lullaby’. The graphical version was published in L’Internationale Online, ‘Austerity and Utopia’. See more at: https://bit.ly/332vOit, accessed 4 March 2021.

3 Encarnación López Júlvez, known by the stage name La Argentinita, was a Spanish-Argentinian dancer, choreographer, canzonetista and flamenco dancer who lived from 1898 to 1945.

4 María Salgado and Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, ‘Nana de esta pequeña era / This little era lullaby’. The graphical version was published in L’Internationale Online, ‘Austerity and Utopia’.

5 The presentation of the text in English is a problem in itself because of the deliberately ungrammatical construction in Spanish. It can best be conveyed as ‘Did a Noise: Phrases for a political film’.

6 Especially in the film Deprisa, deprisa (Hurry, Hurry!) by Carlos Saura (1981) and Navajeros (Knifers) by Eloy de la Iglesia (1980). The Euraca is a seminar on reading, writing and collective thinking (2013–) in Madrid, at: https://bit.ly/3th6Ar4, accessed 17 November 2020.

7 Notes from a private conversation between Andrea Soto Calderón and Diamela Eltit in Santiago de Chile on 25 May 2017.

8 Citizen movement that emerged out of the demonstration on 15 May 2011 convened in various Spanish cities by the ‘Real Democracy Now!’ platform. The demonstration was followed by people spontaneously camping out in city squares over the course of several weeks, during which time they devised proposals to radicalize democracy and social demands in the wake of the 2008 crisis.