Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Voice Theatre

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967 and lives and works in Montréal, Canada. His large-format interactive installations move at the interface of architecture and performance art. “Voice Theatre” is a site-specific sound and light installation developed by Lozano-Hemmer especially for Augusta Raurica: in the middle of the ancient theatre there is a microphone to record the voices of the participants. These messages, ideas and thoughts are then reproduced in real time on 120 speakers distributed across the ranks of the theatre. At the same time they are visually transformed into rings of light that radiate beyond the grandstands of the theatre. If no one is speaking, the speakers reproduce the recordings of the last 120 participants. Commissioned by HeK in collaboration with the theatre board of Augusta Raurica, ”Voice Theatre”, explores the unique architecture of the ancient auditorium and the contrast between presence and absence: concepts that are usually described as mutually exclusive or opposites.