Emma Sandström

I can hear them chirping (2021)

Installation view: Castello DÁlbertis -The Museum of World Cultures, Genova, IT (2021)

Collaboration with Stefano Conti, as Emma and Conti

Postcards and Sound

In I can hear them chirping, the duo Emma & Conti has communicated remotely with Dr. Maria Camilla de Palma, director of the Museum of World Cultures (Castello d’Albertis). In an exchange of emails, the artists asked the director to choose and describe objects from the museum collection. The work reflects on the multiple retranslation of the original data, probing at the cultural stratification of a narrative set in an institutional environment.

The outcome is a creation of concrete objects in the postcard format, where Emma & Conti use its symbolic, historical and cultural value as a starting point. In connection to the postcards, and by extracting text excerpts from the director’s emails, the artists composed poetic and abstract sound pieces. The audio can only be accessed from a QR code situated on the back of the postcards. The visitors are invited to take the postcards with them.