Acoustics is a branch of physics that studies sound, a phenomenon in waves caused by the most diverse objects, whose propagation occurs through the different physical states of matter. Being emitted from any sound source, the sound then finds in its emission a series of shields that cause diffraction, reflection or absorption. It is this meeting of the materiality of the sound with the other physical materialities that the acoustics addresses. Each architectural environment has a diverse set of possibilities for the interaction of sound and matter. Just as a bat uses its sonar to guess the nature of the environment in which it circulates, acoustics reveals an environment, its nature, its spaces.
Taking the architecture of a building as an immense instrument to be played by a woman’s voice, ZENITH invests in the discovery of acoustics as the basis for sound exploration. The public is given a path to follow in dialogue with this voice that sometimes reveals, sometimes hides the space in its articulation with the silence and the nakedness of the built architecture.
ZENITH is a concert performance haunted by the affection of those who have departed in a tragic way for their skin color, their gender, their sexual identity, their social status, their political position, leaving us orphans of their biographies and their speeches on the world. From original and adapted compositions, the concert invests in the encounter of Isabél Zuaa’s voice with architecture to take the audience on a tour of the full and empty spaces of a ship.
ZENITH brings together Brazilian choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco, Portuguese performer and singer Isabél Zuaa, longtime partners, with Brazilian musician and composer Domenico Lancellotti.