Sounds of Rijeka
One of the lasting impressions of the pier after my first visit in November was the inability to see the sea when walking along the pier: a break wall stands tall and keeps our views shielded. Ancient pictures of the pier show a promenade on top of the break wall but it has long disappeared.
I thought of several strategies to allow people to look over the wall (a crow’s nest, a ferris wheel, a tunera...) but ended up choosing a reverse gesture: the sounds of the sea are carried over the wall. These tubes function somehow as ancient ships’ voice tubes, and are towards the end of the pier, which is a more quiet and intimate section of the pier. They carry the sounds of the water lapping on the rocks from the other side. They require one to stop and pay attention to the sounds which can become barely noticeable but appear as strange voices and gurgling underwater spirits!
The unintended irony is that people end up going over the wall to see where the tubes go, even before actually listening to the tubes, and therefore discover the view...
(thanks to Pete Richards, creator of the Wave Organ in SF, an inspiration for this installation)
LAETITIA SONAMI - RIJEKA, CROATIA
“INVISIBLE SEA”
Voices of Rijeka