Poločas Přeměny (Half-Time of Transformation) is a sound-constructed reality that seeks to evoke a deeper connection with glaciers and their disappearing memory while capturing the sense of transformation, uncertainty, and fragility. This piece was made for a site-specific multi-sensory installation created in collaboration with visual artist Dominika Kunzová and curator Petra Lexová. The installation was open to the public from October 12 to November 22, 2024, in Budweis, Czechia. This installation is a continuation of our artistic dialogue that is rooted in our collaboration in Iceland that took place in the summer of 2023.
ABOUT THE INSTALLATION:
Many foundations of our collaboration emerged during our journey to the East Fjords of Iceland. Guided by harsh weather and the uncertain terrains of the land, we were constantly reminded of our own fragility. In the dense fog, we learned to wait. Memory and imagination rose where vision failed. The fog became a white night - a landscape of memory, intuition, belief, and uncertainty.
Pendulum became the central motif of the piece. Set into motion by the warning calls carried through the wind, it begins to swing. With every arc, it sets the sonic space in motion, shifting vast masses and sending ripples through air, water, and earth. Signals of warning travel across the elements as the force of transformation unfolds. In this growing turbulence, information turns to noise.
Yet amid this intensity lies the half-time of transformation: a suspended moment between what was and what is yet to come. This in-between state holds both the breath of change and the fragile possibility of becoming. It is the delicate point where endings and beginnings meet. The moment that opens a space for reaction, for choice, for transformation. Change here is not defined as certain or complete but exists amid the accelerating flow of forces moving toward an uncertain future.
The scale of changes we face is beyond comprehension. I witnessed large masses of glacier ice receding with each visit. With every return, the sense of loss and urgency grew inside me. While the eye captures the massive, monumental body of the white giant, sound reveals its fragility, its constant inner movement, and the living pulse of melting ice. I hope you’ll get to see beyond the mass of ice. To see the sacred living water: the fading bank of memory that nurtures to exhaustion, slowly disappearing in front of our eyes.
Visual artist: Dominika Kunzová
Sound Artist and Sound engineer: Mari Yasero
Curator: Petra Lexová
Flute: Petra Valtellina
This project was funded by: European Capital of Culture - Budweis 2028, City of Budweis, Jihočeský kraj, Dny otevřených Ateliérů, and Composer’s Fund by STEF & RUV.
Binaural downmix of the composition. Please listen with headphones!