Quijada a Cuerdas

In collaboration with Mariateresa Lattarulo and Valerio Nalin, (Luthier), Tania Granados (performer, violinist)

MATERIALS: Donkey jaw, violin strings (¼) in steel, pegs (1/8), bridge, Balkan maple wood element, bow, stick

DIMENSIONS: 45 x 25 x 22 (h) cm

ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE: The work, without interaction, produces no sounds. It can be played by the public through percussion, pizzicato or bow. The possible sounds produced are not very loud.
SET-UP: The work will be placed on a not very high pedestal, to avoid the «sculpture not to be touched» effect for the public who, on the contrary, will be invited to try the instrument.

SYNOPSIS: A bony mandible rests next to a wand and a bow, which represent an invitation to the public by the artist. The invitation to interact with the work.

The Quijada de Burro (donkey’s jaw) is an idiophone musical instrument widespread in popular music in Latin America and in particular in Peru, the artist’s birthplace. Its origins, however, refer to a colonial past, through which the instrument arrived from African lands. The artist, recreating a typically Western colonization process, intervenes on the primitive instrument by «contaminating» it with parts of the violin, a classic instrument symbol of European musical culture. By inserting new elements such as strings, bridge and pegs, the instrument, already endowed with a history, a functionality and its own specific sound, is forced to adapt to classical canons and to limit its natural resonance. At the same time, however, the artist opens up a reflection on how an operation of distortion can be transformed into a creative act, a possibility to find new forms of expression, new languages. The instrument thus welcomes the possibility of being played not only with a stick and percussion, but also with a bow and pizzicato, giving back to the violin part its original characteristics as a popular playful instrument. With this work, Adriana Tomatis manages not only to experiment with new musical possibilities, but also to rework her own life experience in a foreign context, in which, after an initial moment of «loss of her voice», she has managed to transform a limit in a new possibility of expression. A new voice.