CD - Brut Claire
La Manufacture de Chaussures in Bordeaux is a 1930s shoe factory that since 1998 has been transformed into TNT, a urban place for the re-appropriation of public space. This building is being used as a space for independent artistic creation and promotion. Despite the restructuring (substantial changes to the structure are still incomplete), most of the architectural elements and furnishings still testify to the building's old function. In this environment Guillaume Laidain has created a series of nine sound "panels", sort of snapshots that tendentiously trace the sound memory of the building, a sensitive document that testifies to the atmosphere and the fervent activity of days gone by. The recordings were made between 2009 and 2010: every month a single "snapshot" (including sounds) has been posted on the TNT website, a "work in progress" of the bigger project to both create and promote art. The project was completed - finally - with a sound installation of 400 audio speakers in the main hall of the theatre, which played back all the recordings made during the project. The nine tracks were recorded at different times of the day and are organised by the location of the recording: an operation by which the "decoding" and "interpretations" of authorship are certainly not negligible. In fact, the proceedings in this case are not "automatic" at all - it seems very dependent on the personal choices of the artist, through a sort of "poetic" between the spaces and the final audience; those who witnessed the live performance, the online audience or indeed those who have bought the CD, released on the Brut Claire label.
Aurelio Cianciotta