SRS (Silk Road Songbook): An audio-video installation by Millie Chen and Arzu Ozkal
SRS (Silk Road Songbook) is an audio-video installation that weaves songs of resistance into the land, broadcasting women's distinct, unruly voices on an ancient Eurasian migration route between Istanbul, Tehran, Tashkent, Bishkek, and Xi'an. By conveying the complex stories emerging from each place and person involved, the project challenges Orientalist exoticism, cultural tourism, and censorship, disrupting the grand, tidy narrative of the popular perception of the "Silk Road." The five songs were generated in collaboration with local communities along the route; these collaborators chose the landscapes, musical genres, and lyrical content. For each location, their voices serve as the dynamic driving force, while the land acts as the visual anchor.
Across the projections in the SRS installation, a visual thread is woven through all sites forming the horizon line of the land, connecting different places as co-existing within a commonality and continuity of space. The aural thread across all places is sourced from natural elements found in each environment, a shared sound of the land that forms an atmospheric 6th voice, a voice that carries the wind, water, rustling grass, birds and thunder.
Since its inception in 2017, SRS has been developed through the efforts of its creators and collaborators. The project is now ready to be exhibited. More details can be found at the link below:
www.silkroadsongbook.com/about
Collaborators:
Deniz Taşar, Adem Gülşen, Alexey Ulko, Feride Girgin, Vadim Shvedchikov, Ashot Danielyan, Umida Akhmedova, Mengmeng Wang, Junfang Zhang, Mei Yang, thruoutin, Qi Shen, Baran Ehsaei (Faunoos), Arash Zarabi, Gulzada Ryskulova, Diana Rakhmanova, Ilya Karimdjanov, Kylymdar Asykbekov, Chyngyz, Meikin, Jean Martin, Chris Ferrari, Sangjun Yoo
Funding:
SRS is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, The American Turkish Society, University at Buffalo, San Diego State University, and United University Professions.
For more information or to request installation specifications, please contact:
Millie Chen – milchen@buffalo.edu
Arzu Ozkal – arzu.ozkal@sdsu.edu
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