Xingu is a sound and video installation, part of the Yîara series of sound works, based on the tracing of rivers that have been interrupted due to the construction of hydroelectric plants.
It departs from the outlines of the Xingu river in Para, north Brazil. The contours, curves and the crisscrossing of the lines in the map are transposed to a music score in a way that the sound follows the patterns of the river.
The composition of the sound mixes nature sounds recorded at the river with voices, chants and legends of the Assurini people, from the Kwatinemu village, a native Brazilian community located on the Middle Xingu region.
As the waters of the rivers carry in its flow the sediments of places it goes through, in every country/city the project is installed, 3 local voices are added to the flux of sound, becoming part of the piece. As it was presented in Ljubljana, the voices of 3 Slovenian singers were incorporated to the project, reinterpreting and singing the Assurini words.
The sound piece was composed in collaboration with Slovenian musician Brane Zorman.
Two videos are part of the installation. One is a 52 minutes recording of a trip along the river, taken by a camera attached to a canoe.The second is a documentation of the beginning of the construction of Belo Monte power plant. In every place the work is presented a local artisan makes a lace piece in the shape of Volta Grande, a part of the Xingu river that was dewatered with the power plant construction.