RADIO PHARMA by Arturas Bumšteinas
„Radio Pharma“
In year 2018 Lithuanian sound artist Arturas Bumšteinas turned Vilnius‘ „Sodų4“ gallery space into a recording studio for volunteers to visit and freely vocalize the names of their pharmaceuticals of choice. The (now defunct) gallery used to be located on a ground level, with windows and entrance to the busy street, so it was convenient for passers-by to notice the poster and visit the space (however, more participants were summoned by the social media announcements). In total 44 people decided to lend their voices for the archive which was titled “Lyrica”. Most of the participants sang the generic names of active substances of their medication and the variety of remedies appeared to be very wide – from prescription drugs to homeopathic and natural plant medicine. There were no instructions given on how and what to sing, the only proposal was - “sing the name(s) of your medication”. The visitors were 80% female and the age spectrum was between 20 to 40 years (there were few participants in their 50’s and 60’s as well) and this is well reflected in the singularity of the overall sound of the virtual choir in “Radio Pharma”. Not all participants were from the same social strata and even if most people were young, they were with very different backgrounds: from the law student to the Golden Lion awardee to the street sex worker to the opera producer…
In year 2018 the whole “Lyrica” archive was published on the artist’s website as a collection of individual a/v files for the site visitor’s ad hoc mixing, thus generating an innumerable versions of possible “prescriptions”. The work which is submitted to this competition is titled “Radio Pharma” and it was composed by collating the archive’s voices in November of 2021; it is supposed to be aired on the radio as a kind of “radiophonic pharmaceutical seance”, however it is also possible to perform it live by a group of both professional and amateur vocalists.
“Radio Pharma” broadcast is a conceptual medical ritual in which the voices bring back the ritualistic aspect to the healing process and radiates charged vocalisations to the essentially resonant body.
Tracklist
| 1. | RADIO PHARMA | 29:29 |
Credits
Title: “Radio Pharma”
Duration: 29’29’’
Year of production: 2021
Place and date of first radio broadcast: LRT KLASIKA “Ryto Allegro”, 2021/11.
Country of origin: Lithuania
Author and producer: Arturas Bumšteinas
Featuring voices by: Agnė Ambrozaitytė, Birutė Asevičiūtė, Daura Polonskytė, Dovilė Berlinskaitė, Eglė Mikalajūnė, Erika Žilinskaitė, Gabija Adomonytė, Greta Grinevičiūtė, Ieva Kaniušaitė, Paulius Markevičius, Ieva Parnarauskaitė, Indrė Liškauskaitė, Karina Metrikytė, Kęstutis Pleita, Lora Kmieliauskaitė, Magdalena Kozlovskaja, Laurynas Skeisgiela, Monika Lipšic, Somnus, Alanas Gurinas, Vaiva Grainytė, Tautvydas Mažeika, Viktorija Damerell, Vainius P, Kąstytis Raguckas, Juta Pranulytė, Jurgita Juodytė, Jonas Kuprevičius, Gabrielė Bilevičiūtė, Aistė Viršulytė, Arnas Kmieliauskas, Gabrielė Griciūtė, Aušra, Gerda Bartusevičiūtė, Mantas Augustaitis, Liza Baliasnaja, Milda Dainovskytė and several “anonymous patients”.
