Laura Belém, Temple of Thousand Bells, Liverpool Biennale, 2010.
A thousand bells of translucent glass have been blown for the Liverpool Biennial and they do tell a story.
The legend of a temple built on a small island, a temple with a thousand bells sounding in the wind; but one day this island sank into the ocean drawning the thousand bells into the water, where they did continue resounding.
The legend tells the story of a sailor who went on a quest for the temple, guided by the sound of its bells over/under the seas.
For Touched the brasilian artist Laura Belém tells this story with her work Temple of a Thousand Bells installed in the Oratory outside the Liverpool Cathedral..
Together we did talk about perception, legends, sound and how her work is a kind of invitation to the viewer to slow down the pace and to listen to her/his own inner silence.
And it is exactly this attention to the private inner space, the core of Belém's work. According to the artist "political means to be conscious" and it is not necessary to hold on a flag or to raise the voice, but "every artwork that makes you conscious is somehow political".
The main sound of this interview is the sound of the installation Temple of a thousand bells, composed by Fernando Rocha. The music is What remains in a breath by Massimo Berizzi published by the netlabel 51.beats.