Urban Rites  Pavel Tchikov Jul 2022 -

Among others, rites are meant to make concrete the metamorphoses and the internal molts of human beings. On an individual level as well as on the level of their natural and social environment.

We, modern westerners, have cut off the cord that tied us to most of our traditions. Our current way of living leads us to some issues that are specific to it. We lack time. We are entangled in a maelstrom of preoccupations. We tend to idly drift from one thing to another. Sometimes we end up bearing the consequences of it all. We discover that some of our opinions are not really ours, that our actions are not really ours either. Or we face a sudden psychic dysfunction. Realize that we have lost touch with our social environment. Sometimes we even reach a turning point in life becoming aware that the life we lead is not the one we wanted.

Through a long interactive performance in a public space where the audience intervenes , intentionally or not, on the musical mechanism (made from a modular system, different sensors, and acoustic instruments : tamtam, singing bowls, tubular chimes), the artist imagines what a modern urban rite could be. His intent is to make time elastic, to try to stimulate the listener's acuity, in the modern urban environment and its specific soundscapes. To recreate the immersion into the rite that in the past and still nowadays allows certain civilizations to make conscious the movements that take place in the individuals and in the world they are part of.

« It is not only about making sounds and music, but also about transforming humanity » - Iannis Xenakis