008 Urban Songline, 2011 – Novy Most / Space Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia

The sounds produced by Novy Most in Bratislava, the largest singe-span suspension bridge in the world, transmitted by Viennese Free Radio Orange 94.0, received back and subsequently translated into music to be listened to whilst enjoying the view towards ‘free’ Vienna from the observation deck of the bridge which was prohibited during the cold war.

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Reasons why Allard van Hoorn decided to do this performance on the New Bridge were rooted in the history of the observation deck. Although it existed there from the very beginning of the New Bridge, structure completed in the 70’s of the 20th century, it had been closed until recently because the ‘capitalist’ Austria could be seen from the observation deck. Therefore Allard van Hoorn decided to describe that line, the Urban Songline between the two cities in a radio-signal that was made into a permanent piece of music that could be listened to at that location and which describes that line of a view looking towards Vienna from Bratislava. Through this Urban Songline the two cities are now permanently connected.

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Part of the project Urban Songlines, a utopian/dystopian series of collaborative translations of buildings, urban structures and public spaces into music through site-specific sound-generation. These performances are a way of connecting to places by listening to them as well as a research into how we use and experience the public domain and to what degree we can claim ownership over it, discussing notions of inclusion, becoming and belonging.