A Silent Opera for Anthropogenic Mass is a sound installation by the artist Joana Moll which speaks of the difficulty of making visible climate change and the destruction of ecosystems. The work can be listened to by means of this link on a route that covers the Ramblas of Barcelona. The installation will be opened with Kosmopolis and will be active from 24th October to 26th November.
The installation was triggered by a study in Nature which revealed in 2020 that the weight of all the material generated by humans (concrete, bricks, asphalt, metals) had, for the first time, exceeded the total biomass of the planet, which is to say the mass of living organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes. Joana Moll has translated into sounds, on seven audio channels, data that show the constant but silent growth of materials produced by human beings between 1900 and 2020.
Joana Moll will guide a hearing of her opera on 28th October at 13h. The meeting place will be the central area of the Plaça de Catalunya, where the opera begins. Moll will give a 10-minute introduction to the piece so that each participant can follow their own route along the Rambla until they reach the Columbus monument, where the opera ends.
—A project by Joana Moll
—Sound Design: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros
—Technical Development: Ramin Soleymani
—Graphic Design: todojunto.net
—Executive Producer: Marta Millet Agustí
—A Silent Opera for Anthropogenic Mass, by Joana Moll, was commissioned by transmediale 2023, and financed by the Culture and Europe Department of the Berlin Senate, in co-production with the Ramon Llull Institute. The adaptation of this installation for the Rambla of Barcelona was suggested by Kosmopolis 23.
