Sonic Shadows

Youna Gioni, Fotini (Lucy) Sarafianou and Anastasia Rontogianni, Sonic Shadows, 2024, video performance, 2 min 59 seconds

The work “Sound Shadows” by Youna Gioni, Fotini Sarafianou, and Anastasia Rontogianni explores the boundaries between hearing, silence and the bodily experience of sound. The two “shadows” in the background create sounds which the hard-of-hearing woman in the center tries to reproduce, as she perceives them without hearing aids. Through gestures and rhythms transmitted from body to body, the video-performance creates a dialogue beyond the voice, where the absence of sound becomes a new form of communication. 

Viewers are invited to “walk” through the work, to attune themselves to its subtle vibrations and pauses. The “walk” becomes an introspective experience —a passage through the unseen languages of presence and coexistence, where silence takes on form and sound is transformed into lived experience.

ACT I

In the video, three women stand in front of a white wall, looking directly into the camera. The woman positioned at the front and center has brown hair and is dressed in white. The other two stand behind her, to her right and left. Both wear black; the woman on the right has blonde hair while the one on the left has black hair and wears glasses. 

The woman in the center removes her hearing aids and places them on a table in front of her, outside the frame. The two women behind her exchange a glance and stamp their feet three times on the floor.

The woman on the right touches the shoulder of the woman in the center, who responds by clapping twice. Then, the two women at the back look at each other again, clap twice, and once more the woman on the right touches the shoulder of the woman in the center. This time, she does not react. The two women look at each other, step back until they touch the wall, and  begin to strike it repeatedly with their palms, without rhythm. Again, the woman on the right touches the shoulder of the woman in the center, who now claps once.ACT II

The woman in the center leans against a table with her back, facing the camera directly. The other two stand behind her, on the narrow sides of the table, opposite each other. They take turns striking the table in different places. After each sound, the woman in the center, without turning around, attempts to reproduce the sound patterns, trying to figure out how many strikes there were each time and exactly where they were made. Gradually, the sounds become softer, more drawn out, often made only with the fingertips.

ACT III

The same woman stands at the center with her eyes closed. The other two stand close to her, one on each side. In turn, they approach her and, as if telling her a secret, whisper her name, “Youna,” near her ear, in different tones, starting from lower and going to higher pitches. Whenever she hears a sound, she responds by clapping her hands

Exhibition section: Human Presences
…familiar or unfamiliar, they accompany us. At times intensely, at times subtly, lingering or fleeting

Find out more about the project: